The role of power utilities has assumed greater significance as electricity is critical to ensure the smooth functioning of various sectors of the economy. NTPC is committed to providing continuous power to the country while abiding with all the guidelines set by the Government of India as well as state governments regarding lockdown and social distancing. Gurdeep Singh, CMD, NTPC and regional heads are monitoring all developments and ensuring that there is no gap in power generation.
Social welfare activities for underprivileged and migrant workers in the vicinity of NTPC are also being undertaken. The company intends to ensure both the uninterrupted power supply and the well-being of the employees. Hence, the power stations are operating with the requisite number of manpower while the rest of the employees are contributing from home through the extensive IT support.
Expediting its vigil against the global pandemic of COVID-19, NTPC has already utilised its 45 hospitals/health units to make isolation facilities and procured the requisite equipment for the medical staff to handle such cases effectively. About 168 isolation beds with oxygen supply have been created across all hospitals/health units and an additional 122 beds can be made available on need basis. Two hospitals have been made ready for use by state governments to tackle the Coronavirus cases including the hospital at Badarpur in Delhi and medical college hospital of Sundergarh at Odisha.
Availability and access to proper healthcare equipment is the need of the hour, a budget of nearly Rs 3 crore has been allocated for procurement of equipment. At present, there are seven ventilators in NTPC’s project hospitals. There are 18 advanced level ambulances with ventilators. Another 18 ventilators and 520 IR thermometers are in the process of procurement for different hospitals.
Personal Protective Equipment and hand sanitisation have emerged as the biggest prevention mechanisms against the deadly Coronavirus. Therefore, NTPC has shared testing, treatment and transport guidelines as issued by MOHFW with all the CMOs. The Medical staff has also been trained over video calls about the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Further 1,200 PPE kits, 1,20,000 surgical masks, over 33,000 gloves, 5,000 aprons, 8,000 shoe covers and 535 litres of sanitisers have been dispatched to all the project stations.
Furthermore, NTPC is providing financial support of Rs 6.36 crore to district administration and local authorities to deal with this pandemic. As part of its corporate social responsibility, NTPC Rihand handed over 2,800 sacks of food grains and food items packets worth Rs 17 lakh to the district administration for distributing among underprivileged families. NTPC Vindhyachal committed Rs 25 lakh as financial aid for relief measures to Indian Red Cross Society, Singrauli.
NTPC has stepped up its vigil against the global pandemic of COVID-19 by contributing Rs 250 crores to PM CARES fund to strengthen the fight to contain the spread of COVID-19.