Chief Minister Pramod Sawant along with Dy CM Chandrakant Kavlekar, Cuncolim MLA Clafacio Dias at the Cuncolim Industrial Estate on Sunday. Captured by : Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
The Cuncolim oxygen plant located at the Cuncolim Industrial Estate has promised to supply 500 medical cylinders to the government every day, beginning Monday, which is expected to go a long way in meeting the requirement of medical gas in hospitals battling Covid infections.
The assurance came after Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday visited the Cuncolim Industrial Estate with Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar, Cuncolim MLA Clafacio Dias, Chief Secretary, South Goa district Collector Ruchika Katyal and Margao Sub-divisional Magistrate Jyoti Kumari on Sunday evening to explore the possibility of requesting the owner of the plant to supply medical gas 24x7.
While the plant produces oxygen for industries, the proprietor has now been asked to produce medical oxygen 24x7. In this respect, the government has promised to supply cylinders to fill medical oxygen and supply the same to the government and other hosptials.
After discussions and inspection of the plant, the Chief Minister told media persons that the Cuncolim plant has the capacity to supply 500 cylinders daily to the government hospitals if it runs 24x7. “The owner has promised to enhance the medical oxygen supply to 500 cylinders a day by working round the clock. Once this plant starts production round the clock, it will help maintain the supply of medical oxygen to patients in government and other hospitals”, he said.
The Chief Minister on Sunday visited a couple of oxygen manufacturing plants across the state in a bid to augment the capacity so that these plants supply medical oxygen to the hospitals across the State.
He added: “Our team has verified that the Cuncolim plant can produced 500 cylinders of medical oxygen. They have assured to run the plant 24x7. I have told them to achieve the full production capacity by taking all safety precautions. The necessary permissions will be issued immediately”.
The Chief Minister said the administration will meet the requirements of the plant by supplying the plant medical oxygen cylinders.
Dy Chief Minister Kavlekar said the Chief Minister has taken up the issues with the owner of the oxygen plant and exuded confidence that the Cuncolim plant will help meet the requirement of medical oxygen in a big way. “The Chief Minister has come down personally to Cuncolim to find out the status of the plant. This shows the government does care for the citizens during the pandemic”, he said
Cuncolim MLA Clafacio Dias pointed out that the Chief Minister has also requested the oxygen plant owner to explore the possibility of setting up an additional plant to produce medical oxygen to meet the growing requirements.
Oxygen manufacturing unit at
South District Hospital soon
MARGAO: The South Goa district hospital will play host to government-run oxygen manufacturing unit in the next fortnight, with the government deciding to set up a plant under the PM Care Fund, even as he said that the government is on the job to tone up the medical oxygen supply system to meet the future requirements as well.
In fact, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who reviewed the oxygen supply position in the South Goa district hospital along with the Chief Secretary, South Goa district Collector Ruchika Katyal, Hospicio Medical Superintendent Dr Deepa Corriea, said that the South Goa district hospital has an inbuilt system which can supply oxygen in a self sustaining manner. “The district hospital has got the best of oxygen facility We have to run the plant with the help of a compressor. Since the compressor is coming by May 8, we expect to start the oxygen plant in the hospital premises by around May 15”, he said.
“We don’t not want to depend a single oxygen supplier. Since the demand is more because of COVID, we have listed out many manufacturers and supplies to help meet the situation on priority”, CM said.
He added: “I can assure that there will not be any more shortage of oxygen in the future. We have taken a review on the oxygen supply at the highest level and we have issued instructions to streamline the situation to meet present and future requirements”.
Govt sending home isolation
kits to health centres: CM
MARGAO: With the Urban and primary health centres facing a shortage of home isolation kits, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday said that the government has started sending the medicines and kits to the health centres to tide over the situation.
He said though the kits were not available with the health centres in the last couple of days, the centres had assured to provide medicines to patients under home isolation. “We did not leave any patient sans medicines even though the home isolation kits got exhausted. The situation should improve since the government has dispatched fresh stock of kits and medicines to the Urban and primary health centres on Sunday”, the Chief Minister added.
Sawant visits Verna Oxy plant,
urges direct supply to GMC
VASCO: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday evening visited the SA Oxy-Nitro plant situated in Verna to inspect the functioning of the plant and take steps to enhance oxygen manufacturing.
According to sources, Sawant spent around 45 minutes in the plant to assess the production of oxygen. He also assured the officials of all the support required and also directed the plant officials to enhance the capacity and supply the oxygen cylinders directly to GMC hospital
"We produce around 600 to 650 cylinders of oxygen every day and these cylinders are given to the government. Each cylinder is around 7 cubic in capacity and we have been supplying these cylinders to the Government directly since the last one month after the second Covid wave began," said the source.
The source also said that the government will pay their electricity bill and assured a lot of incentives but directed the plant officials to ensure enhancement of production.
