Punjab to set up oxygen plants in eight districts

LAHORE: On the directions of the chief minister, the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department has embarked upon a project to set up oxygen plants in eight districts of Punjab.

In this regard, Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Muhammad Usman chaired a meeting in his office to review key contents of the plan. The plan has entered final stages of preparation. Ten oxygen plants will have the capacity to produce 100 cylinders of oxygen per day.

Secretary PSHD said 30,000 oxygen cylinders per month will be able to meet the requirement of 125 DHQs and THQs across the province. In the last four years, on average 124,549 cylinders were used annually, a total of 498,198 oxygen cylinders were used in the last four years.

He said that in South Punjab Vehari, Muzaffargarh, DG Khan and Layyah districts are under consideration for setting up oxygen plants. On the other hand in upper Punjab, Okara, Toba Tek Singh, Muridke, Jhelum and Hafizabad districts are under consideration.

Installing its own oxygen plants will cost about Rs 3.81billion over next 10 years. He added that estimated cost of purchasing oxygen from the market for next 10 years would be about Rs 11.50billion. In this regard, the Punjab government will save Rs 8 billion in ten years by installing its own oxygen plants. As well as savings, the quality of the oxygen produced will be better than the market. The final plan will be submitted to the Cabinet for approval after completing the strategies.