The Delhi Government on Friday approved the procurement of 15 Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) tankers for the national capital.
The decision was made by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) in its Board resolution on Friday, chaired by Chairman of DTC Board and Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot within 24 hours of Cheif Minister Arvind Kejriwal's directions.
After the Board resolution, Gahlot said, ''the oxygen supply chain management had undergone severe pressure due to an exponential rise in demand for LMO during the second wave. In order to avoid a situation in case an unfortunate third wave occurs, we have prepared an exhaustive management plan for ensuring that no Delhiite suffers from the lack of oxygen."
"During the last wave too, the DTC control room was converted into an oxygen War room, and the Delhi Government and DTC are on a war footing to ensure that any eventuality is dealt with, in case any need arises," he added.
Earlier on Thursday, a high-level meeting was chaired by CM Arvind Kejriwal on the issue of the emergence of new variants of COVID-19 and the latest orders of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) in light of Omicron. An emergency meeting of the DTC Board was hence called to focus on the need for a fallback procurement of LMO in case of emergency.
The tender was issued earlier this year for the procurement of 15 Oxygen cryogenic tankers of the total capacity of 225 MT for transportation of liquid oxygen by DTC. The Delhi government will be procuring five tankers each of 10 tonnes, 15 tonnes and 20 tonnes each. Manpower for the operation of these tankers would be recruited by DTC and each tanker would be manned by one driver and one helper in a shift of eight hours each.
During the second wave of COVID- 19, the Delhi Government had decided that a dedicated fleet of LMO tankers will be procured and DTC was given the responsibility to procure LMO tankers for the health department.
The procurement of these tankers would be done to create an emergency reservoir pool of tankers to tide over any emergent requirement of liquid oxygen procurement from suppliers outside Delhi and to serve the purpose of intra-city distribution.
( With inputs from ANI )
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