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This is an archive article published on April 28, 2021

PCMC plans to set up oxygen generation plants at four Covid hospitals in 21 days

Namdeo Dhake, BJP House leader in PCMC, said the four plants will come up at the New Bhosari, Jijamata, Thergaon and Akurdi hospitals.

Oxygen plant, PunePCMC said plans are also afoot to install similar plants at other facilities like YCM hospital, Jumbo hospital and Auto Cluster hospital. (File photo)

With demand for medical oxygen rising and hospitals struggling to get their daily quota, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has decided to set up oxygen generation plants at four of its hospitals. The civic body said it expects the oxygen generation plants to come up within the next 21 days to effectively tackle the demand for medical oxygen.

Namdeo Dhake, BJP House leader in PCMC, said the four plants will come up at the New Bhosari, Jijamata, Thergaon and Akurdi hospitals.

“Initially, we have plans to install four oxygen generation plants. In coming days, we plan to set up at least 8-10 such oxygen generation plants to meet any eventuality,” he said.

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“We have sanctioned over Rs 6 crore for installing the four plants at four hospitals. We expect they will be set up in about 21 days’ time,” he said.

Dhake said the Thergaon hospital plant will have an oxygen generation capacity of 1,050 litre per minute. “For this plant, we have sanctioned Rs 1.9 crore. At other three hospitals, plants of 60 litre per minute capacity will come up. Each of these plants will cost Rs 1.40 crore. In all, the four plants will cost Rs 6.10 crore. These plants will help increase 450 oxygen beds and 50 ventilators beds,” Dhake said.

PCMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Vikas Dhakane said, “Though we are in the immediate future installing four plants at the four hospitals, we are also getting three more plants. The cost of setting up one will come from the MLA’s Fund and the other two through CSR funds. So, we should be have seven oxygen generation plants.”

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“This will certainly create more stock and we will not have to search for oxygen if the available stock depletes,” said Dhakane.

The PCMC also has plans to install similar plants at other facilities like YCM hospital, Jumbo hospital and Auto Cluster hospital.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Laxman Jagtap, in a letter to District Collector Rajesh Patil, has urged him to set up oxygen plants in Pimpri-Chinchwad. “Oxygen plants are located in Chakan which are at quite a distance from Pimpri-Chinchwad. The collectorate should take steps to set up the oxygen plants in Pimpri-Chinchwad. This will save lot of time in bringing the oxygen from these plants to the hospitals in Pimpri-Chinchwad, especially in case of emergencies,” said Jagtap.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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