India hands over medical oxygen plant to BPKIHS

KATHMANDU: Ambassador of India to Nepal, Vinay Mohan Kwatra today handed over a 960 LPM Medical Oxygen Plant to Minister of State for Health, Umesh Shrestha at a ceremony organized at the Ministry of Health & Population. 

The Medical Oxygen plant has been installed at B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, and is designed to cater to providing 5 Litres Per Minute (LPM) per person amounting to a total capacity of 960 LPM. It thereby carries a capacity to serve 200 patients simultaneously and has been handed to Nepal as part of India’s robust partnership with Nepal in tackling the COVID -19 pandemic, the Embassy of India stated in a press release.

At the ceremony, Ambassador Kwatra highlighted the significance of the deep-rooted and multifaceted partnership between India and Nepal and reiterated that this gift symbolized India’s continued commitment to Nepal in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minister of State Shrestha mentioned that the donation of the oxygen plant was a critical health infrastructure that would reinforce Nepal’s efforts in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He added that the assistance by the Government of India two decades ago in building BPKIHS at Dharan was an important milestone, and the addition of an oxygen plant today is another milestone that would go a long way in serving the people of Nepal particularly Provinces 1 and 2.

Oxygen is a very important clinical gas in health care centres and hospitals for the treatment of COVID 19 patients, as it has been experienced during the second wave of the pandemic in both India and Nepal. 

With this DEBEL Medical Oxygen Plant that has been developed by Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), hospitals now have the option of generating medical oxygen on-site, in a highly cost-effective manner. India is the 4th country in the world to develop this technology, which utilizes the Pressure Swing Adsorption technique and molecular sieve technology to generate oxygen directly from atmospheric air. 

The installation of the medical oxygen plant would help in avoiding the dependency of hospitals for scarce oxygen cylinders. This would help in reducing the logistics of transporting cylinders and also continuous and reliable oxygen supply available round the clock, it is stated.