Taking a big leap in the augmentation of medical oxygen ahead of the much-anticipated third Covid wave, the Punjab Government will install 75 more pressure swing adsorption (PSA) plants in the state by July end.Announcing this, here on Sunday, the Chief Secretary Ms Vini Mahajan said the departments concerned have been asked to complete the installation of these plants by the next month end while ensuring pressure and purity of the life-saving gas.With this, the demand of medical oxygen supplies will be met at all the healthcare institutes in the state.Chairing a high-level meeting to review the installation of PSA plants and allied works, here, the Chief Secretary instructed the officials concerned that all pre-activities for the installation of plants must be completed by July 15 so that work of installation and commissioning be completed by July 25.She also asked to appoint nodal officers to oversee each sub-work, including site preparation, DG set installation and gas pipeline network.The Chief Secretary also desired to create a WhatsApp group for each site with Deputy Commissioners, all nodal officers, executing agencies and hospital superintendents concerned as its members for seamless operations and regular updates on the work progress.
The Principal Secretary Water Supply and Sanitation Jaspreet Talwar, who heads the State Oxygen Management Group, apprised the Chief Secretary that Punjab has its own two PSA plants, having capacity of 1,400-litres per minute (LPM), in Ludhiana and Jalandhar. While 42 plants have been allotted by the Centre mainly for the medical colleges and the district hospitals in the state, another 33 plants have been arranged by various agencies/ private bodies for the state. This will add to the state capacity of generating medical oxygen by more than 50 metric tonnes (MT) per day, she added.She further informed that a mobile app for updating the work status and photos on the sites would be launched soon and the nodal officers will be trained and registered there.It was informed in the meeting that five PSA plants have already been installed and were under trial phase. The site preparation for another five plants was completed and it has been conveyed to the DRDO for moving these plants to their destinations in Barnala, Hoshiarpur, Ferozepur, Kapurthala and Tarn Taran.The NHAI, the executing arm for site preparation of Centre-funded plants, was asked to complete the works allotted to it by July 10. The NHAI regional officer RP Singh assured that all work related to site preparation for Central plants will be completed by the given date.The ACS-cum-CMD PSPCL A. Venu Prasad, Principal Secretaries DK Tiwari (Medical Education and Research), Hussan Lal (Health and Family Welfare), Vikas Pratap (PWD), Additional Secretary Water Supply and Sanitation Amit Talwar and all the Deputy Commissioners also attended the meeting.