Covid-19: SAIL to set up additional 2,500 beds with gaseous oxygen facilities

TBB BUREAU

NEW DELHI, MAY 1, 2021

With the Covid-19 cases rising at an alarming rate in the country, state-run Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is planning to set up jumbo medical facilities of about 2,500 beds with gaseous oxygen (GOX) for Covid treatment.

This will be in addition to the facilities currently available at SAIL’s five integrated steel plants at Bhilai (Chattisgarh), Bokaro (Jharkhand), Rourkela (Odisha), Durgapur and Burnpur (West Bengal).

These facilities will be developed in phased manner in collaboration with the respective state governments. In the first phase, SAIL will set up about 700 beds which will be scaled up to 2,500 beds across all the five locations.

These facilities shall have oxygen support through a dedicated gas line drawn directly from the steel plants.

At the suggestion of the government, SAIL shall use gaseous oxygen directly as an additional source of oxygen as the demand for liquid medical oxygen is high currently, the company said in a statement.

Currently, there are around 3,000 beds in the five SAIL hospitals and about 45 per cent of beds have been earmarked for Covid patients.

The company remains committed to stand by the nation in fighting against the corona pandemic in every possible way, the SAIL statement added.