Oxygen manufacturing plant in the offing
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, April 22 2012:
A regional oxygen (medical) manufacturing plant would be set up in the State with financial assistance from the North Eastern Council (NEC) .
An official source informed that the regional oxygen manufacturing plant would be set up at Shija Hospitals and Research Institute with NEC funding.
The proposed oxygen manufacturing plant would cater to the needs of the State for medical oxygen in addition to supplying the life sustaining gas to the neighbouring States of Nagaland and Mizoram.
The installed capacity of the proposed plant would be 175 D-type cylinders per day.
For establishment of the oxygen manufacturing plant, a memorandum of understanding would be signed between the Planning Department and Shija Hospitals, informed the official.
At present, medical oxygen costs Rs 1000 per cylinder at Imphal though the same commodity is available at Guwahati at Rs 350 per cylinder.
Informing that the proposed plant is a mega plant, the official said that there would be no shortage of medical oxygen in the State once the manufacturing plant is set up.
Moreover, medical oxygen would be available at a much cheaper rate.
Notably, there were many instances when medical oxygen was set aside for emergency cases after suspending all routine operations in hospitals due to shortage of medical oxygen at times of blockades.