Amid the Oxygen crisis triggered by the spiraling COVID-19 cases, the Punjab Government on Wednesday announced thrust sector status for all Oxygen product units, while appointing a nodal officer to coordinate with the Customs Department for quick clearance of foreign aid.
“With the way things are going currently, the situation is likely to worsen in the coming days, with nobody knowing how many more waves of COVID would hit the country and the State,” said the Chief Minister during the virtual cabinet meeting.
The special status will apply to oxygen production units with a minimum capacity of 700 cylinders per day equivalent to five MT, Oxygen cylinder manufacturers or fabricators, Oxygen concentrator manufacturing units. However, the Oxygen refilling units will not be covered by the special status.
With this decision, the units — both old and new — will become eligible for 100 percent exemption from Change of Land Use (CLU) or External Development Charges (EDC), Property Tax, Electricity Duty, Stamp Duty and Investment Subsidy, by way of reimbursement of GST up to 125 percent of Fixed Capital Investment made in the land and machinery.
Notably, the status of the thrust sector to oxygen production units has been conferred under clause 10.6 of Chapter-10 of Industrial and Business Development Policy, 2017, and subsequently as per clause 2.22 of Detailed Schemes and Operational Guidelines, 2018.
The Cabinet took the decision to help the state cope with the emergent situation arising out of acute shortage of oxygen in view of the increased case load due to unprecedented COVID pandemic in the State.
For the week ending May 4, the State had an average positivity rate of 11.6 percent, with CFR of 2.1 percent, from a sample size of 74 lakh.
Currently, the daily Oxygen allocation to Punjab stands at 195 MT from outside the state — 60 MT from Inox plant at Baddi, 20 MT from Air Liquide plant at Panipat; 15 MT from Air Liquide plant at Roorkee, 10 MT from Linde plant at Dehradun; and 90 MT from Inox plant at Bokaro. However, only 140 MT is actually being supplied from these plants on a daily basis, with shortage of tankers hampering lifting of Oxygen especially from Bokaro.
Two additional tankers, made available by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), have been unutilized due to technical or compatibility issues. Further, despite repeated requests, Linde and Air Liquide are not releasing their committed quota.
The Cabinet was informed that State Governments have also created problems in supplies from the plants that are in their jurisdiction. The plants have also had issues of tripping and power outages leading to supply disruptions and delays.
The state Health Secretary Hussan Lal informed the Cabinet that 14 districts had positivity over 10 percent and six over 11 percent, with Mohali the highest at 25 percent. Deaths were fewer in the young, he said.
The situation was grim with 70 percent L2 beds and over 80 percent L3 beds in government and private hospitals occupied, the Health Secretary said, adding that with 10-30 patients going on ventilator every day, things were not good.
Besides initiating the process to add 2,000 beds in Government Medical Colleges, district hospitals, and the temporary hospitals in Bathinda and Mohali, by the end of the month, direct recruitment had been started for regular staff, while a large number of staff, including students and interns as well as outsourced staff, had also been put on special COVID duties.
Orders had been placed for essential drugs, including 50 lakh Remdesivir 100 mg injections, and the supplies were expected in the next few days, said Hussan Lal.
AMBUJA TO SET UP ONE PSA MEDICAL OXYGEN PLANTS FOR DISTRICT HOSPITALS
Industrial giant, Ambuja cement, has agreed to set up one oxygen plant for Rupnagar District Hospital and Nangal Sub-Divisional Hospital. Ambuja also, in principle, consented to set up one more such oxygen plant and the process for it has been initiated. However, it would take more than a month to start Oxygen supply from this unit.
“The consent of Ambuja to provide one Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen plant to Ropar District Hospitals for COVID facilities would provide much needed respite to the doctors to ensure oxygen supply to the needy patients,” said Rupnagar Deputy Commissioner Sonali Giri on Wednesday.
She said that as intimated by the Ambuja administration, the order for one unit had already been released today. “Oxygen supply from this unit may start within five weeks,” she added.
Deputy Commissioner said that one plant will cater to approximately 50 cylinders per day. “The Ambuja administration had promised to expedite the process of setting up second unit to augment the supply of oxygen to the district hospitals for COVID facilities,” she said, adding that as intimated, the case for setting up second plant had been forwarded to the higher authorities of Ambuja.