In the corona era, the demand for medical oxygen is increasing rapidly. On Wednesday, five corona patients died at SJD Memorial Hospital due to lack of oxygen. The administration has ordered an inquiry into the matter, while everyone knows that the said traumatic incident has occurred due to the delay in the supply of oxygen.
Not only SJD Hospital alone, oxygen crisis is going to happen in almost all the hospitals in the district. In a day or two, this problem can become more difficult, because oxygen is not being supplied according to the demand.
Aligarh receives supplies from Ghaziabad, Kashipur, Greater Noida and Mathura, which are currently stalled. The reason is that there is a tremendous demand for oxygen in the hospitals of Delhi and NCR, the consumption of the same is hardly being met. The remaining oxygen is being given to Agra, Mathura. After this comes the number of Aligarh.
At present, all the entrepreneurs from the oxygen producing plant to the cylinders are tightly guarded by the administration. In such a situation, gas is available only after administrative instructions. Supply is as instructed.
Three plants operating in Aligarh supply only by sourcing gas, but not producing oxygen. Oxygen is produced in a plant in Chherat Road, but due to lack of storage system, the production here is very less. The district currently needs six tonnes of medical, three tonnes of commercial oxygen.
If we get nine tonnes of oxygen, the work of the district can go on, but there is an average supply of six tonnes throughout the week, due to which the shortage is increasing.
About a week later, on Wednesday night, six tons of oxygen was delivered to Radhika Air Product Talanagri, giving oxygen to SJD Hospital and Mithraj Hospital. Even earlier, only six tonnes were supplied in a week. Aligarh got about 12 tonnes of gas in 15 days.
Currently, all the hospitals are in a state of dismantling. Now, if the supply of gas is not found soon, the crisis may be deepened.
Ramendra Sharma, Radhika Air Product, Talanagari said that the demand for oxygen has increased a lot these days. All of us are giving oxygen on the instructions of the administration. The entire stock will be finished by Friday. In such a situation, there may be more crisis in hospitals. No plant in Aligarh is getting supply as per demand. After 2013, there was no such crisis. At that time there was a shortage due to repairs at the oxygen producer plants. This time a crisis has arisen due to high demand.
In view of the oxygen crisis in hospitals across the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed to keep at least 36 hours of oxygen backup in all covid hospitals. If Aligarh has around 9 tonnes of storage, then the hospitals can run for 36 hours, because in 24 hours, six tonnes of oxygen is needed for medical purposes, but the storage is barely two tonnes.
In the year 2010, a big oxygen production plant was set up at Radhan Air Product, Talanagri in Aligarh. Which had a production capacity of ten tonnes per day. However, due to power cuts and tripping, the plant could not meet its expenses and had to be closed.
This plant, built at a cost of one crore about 11 years ago, had to be closed due to power shortage. The owner of this place, Ramendra Sharma, said that now the same plant is worth two and a half crores. Had that plant been operational, Aligarh would have been self-sufficient in oxygen under today's difficult circumstances.