Srinagar: To augment oxygen generation capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jammu and Kashmir government is installing 84 medical oxygen generation plants in 37 major hospitals in the union territory.
“Forty-four oxygen generation plants (having capacity of 39,350 litre per minute or LPM) have already been installed and made operational so far. The remaining 40 oxygen generation plants (with a total capacity of 31,750 LPM) are in the process of installation and likely to be installed by July 2021,” an official spokesman said on Thursday.
Before April 2021, the oxygen generation capacity of Jammu and Kashmir was 15,082 LPM only, the spokesman said.
He said 30 oxygen generation plants (13,300 LPM) are being installed in 30 community health centres and sub-district hospitals — 15 each in Kashmir and Jammu divisions — with funding from the World Bank. The installation of these plants is in progress through J&K Economic Reconstruction Agency.
The central government has also sanctioned additional 32 PSA plants for Jammu and Kashmir under the PM CARES Fund, taking the total number of PSA plants to 146, the spokesman said.
Considering further demand and need to make the oxygen generation facilities available in all tertiary-care and district Hospitals and some major CHCs for tackling the second wave and possible third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir approached the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GoI, for providing additional Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants to the UT under PM CARES Fund.
The Government of India sanctioned additional 32 PSA plants of 24850 LPM, 13 for Kashmir division (13550 LPM) and 13 for Jammu Division (12350 LPM), thereby raising the total no of PSA plants to 146, the spokesman said.
He said that Jammu and Kashmir shall have the capacity of generating oxygen to the extent of 1.26 lakh litre per minute after installation of additional 102 PSA plants including 32 sanctioned under PM CARES Fund.
