DEHRADUN: India will soon have 4,000 oxygen plants, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday while digitally inaugurating 35 pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants set up under the PM Cares Fund across the country. “We increased the production of medical grade oxygen by 10 times and currently over 1,100 oxygen plants are running, while the aim is to set up an oxygen plant in each district under PM Cares Fund and take the number to 4,000,” said Modi at AIIMS Rishikesh, where he inaugurated one of the PSA plants. Under the PSA technique, oxygen can be produced from ambient air by concentrating it.
According to the Central government, the 1,100 oxygen plants that have been commissioned are providing an output of over 1,750 MT oxygen per day. The PM said the newly inaugurated oxygen plants were “vital healthcare infrastructure for larger public benefit.” During the peak of the second wave of Covid-19, hospitals across the country had reported oxygen shortage, resulting in several deaths.
Lauding the country’s fight against Covid-19, the prime minister said it will be a matter of pride for every citizen that over 93 crore people have been vaccinated and the figure will soon cross 100 crore. “India has shown the way to the world by building platforms like the CoWIN platform and how vaccination is carried out on such a large scale,” the PM said.
Modi said the country had fought the pandemic courageously. “From one testing lab to the establishment of a network of 3,000 testing labs and from import of masks and kits to its manufacturing, India is quickly moving forward,” he said.