A Prayagraj businessman claims to be building a modern oxygen generation plant to provide free gas to three city-based, state-run hospitals, which have been experiencing a shortage of life-saving gas in recent weeks as demand soared due to a surge in Covid-19 patients needing oxygen help.
Umesh Jaiswal, a former student of Allahabad University, has promised Tej Bahadur Sapru (Beli) Hospital, Dufferin Hospital, and Colvin Hospital a lifetime supply of free oxygen starting in August when the new oxygen plant is expected to begin operations.
The plant will be built on a 7,400-square-meter plot in Naini Industrial Area’s sector 3. According to Jaiswal, the district administration and the Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation assisted him in obtaining land for the proposed factory.
The Tej Bahadur Sapru (Beli) Hospital is a dedicated Covid care center with 180 beds, while the other two hospitals, Dufferin and Colvin, are non-Covid hospitals with a total capacity of about 350 beds. Dufferin is a hospital for women only.
On average, each of the three hospitals needs around 225 oxygen cylinders a day. Only 200 of these cylinders are required by the Beli hospital. According to officials who did not want to be identified, all three have experienced oxygen shortages at times in recent weeks. Their oxygen requirements will be met by Jaiswal’s plant beginning in August, with a projected capacity of 1100 cylinders per day, with the ability to expand to 1500 cylinders.
According to Jaiswal, his decision was motivated by “recent deaths” in the district caused by a lack of oxygen. “I have a separate company, and I never in my wildest dreams imagined putting up an oxygen plant,” he says. On the occasion of Ramnavmi, he says he was inspired after reading about a Varanasi businessman who wanted to construct an oxygen plant to support Covid patients. “Then and there, I agreed to start something similar for Prayagraj,” says Jaiswal.
Jaiswal’s main line of business is road building. He claims that close friends urged him to establish a huge and modern plant if he really wanted to make a difference.
“The next day, I spoke with Sarvashresth Tripathi, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Prayagraj, who assisted me in meeting with divisional commissioner Sanjay Goyal, who forwarded my suggestion to the authorities concerned the same day,” he added.
All of the required paperwork was done quickly after the district magistrate’s (DM) approval. “I have issued orders to a Gujarat-based company to build an automated oxygen synthesis plant that can generate both liquid and gaseous oxygen at the same time,” he says.
The district officials are optimistic that the project will get off to a flying start soon. “On a priority basis, all assistance is being provided to the businessman in order to set up the factory. We are sure that work will begin on it within the next few days,” said Bhanu Chandra Goswami, DM Prayagraj.
The plant is expected to cost 14 crores, and the land on which it will be constructed will be registered in a matter of weeks.
