Oxygen tanker from Bokaro reaches city under police escort

Varanasi: The local administration heaved a sigh of relief with the arrival of a tanker of medical oxygen from Bokaro steel plant of Jharkhand on Friday as many hospitals treating severe Covid patients in the district were facing its shortage. The oxygen tanker was brought under police escort to save time in transportation.
“The tanker driver, on our request, drove non-stop from Bokaro and reached Varanasi in around 12.30 hours instead of 14 hours to save lives of patients,” said district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma.He said that the police escort vehicle was sent by the Varanasi commissioner of police. The team met the tanker near Dehri-on-Sone and escorted it from there.
The DM said,” The tanker was taken to Medi Tech plant Ram Nagar for filling the liquid oxygen. The Medi Tech plant was shut after it had run out of stock. The plant immediately started working after liquid oxygen was filled and would fill cylinders of hospitals waiting there.”
The DM said that 800 cylinders would be filled on Friday, while another 800 cylinders would be filled on Saturday for hospital supply. “Presently, around 3,800 cylinders are being filled at six oxygen plants situated in Chandauli district per day against the daily increased requirement of 5,000 -6,000 cylinders,” he added.
According to the DM, another consignment of liquid medical oxygen is expected to reach Varanasi by Oxygen Express by Friday night. The Oxygen Express run by the Indian Railways to fight against Covid-19 has already left for Bokaro from Lucknow via Varanasi on Thursday to fulfil the requirements of medical oxygen in Uttar Pradesh. For the uninterrupted movement of the train, a green corridor was created between Lucknow and Varanasi.
Officials said an oxygen plant will be established at the Shiv Prasad Gupta Divisional Hospital with MLA fund provided by UP Minister Neelkanth Tiwari. The minister said he has issued a letter in this regard. MLC AK Sharma also held a meeting with the authorities of the Trauma Centre of Banaras Hindu University and Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital to increase the number of oxygenated beds for Covid patients.