SteelMin opens Covid care centre at Vizag Steel Plant

Visakhapatnam THE first phase of jumbo Covid care centre developed by Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), has been dedicated to the nation on virtual mode by Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday.

In the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant township of Ukkunagaram, 300 oxygen equipped beds are now ready for allotment with an ambulance, doctors and paramedics to serve the patients as part of the first phase. "We want the State Government to man the hospital as we are in the process of increasing the bed strength to 1,000 shortly," a RINL official said.

At present, 100 beds have been placed at Trainee Hostel-1 and 200 beds at Gurajada Kalakshetram, all of which have been fabricated in-house. The central oxygen supply system with cylinder bank delivering to all the beds at Gurajada Kalakshetram has been designed and set up by employees of RINL.

Despite the Centre's in-principle decision taken on January 27 to privatise RINL, its joint ventures and subsidiaries, the employees have been putting concerted efforts to supply medical oxygen to various parts of the country. Now they have contributed their might for making the hospital operational.

"It's a good decision. RINL as part of its corporate social responsibility has risen to the occasion in supply oxygen to enable several critical positive patients to breathe easy and has now provided several oxygen beds," Katam SS Chandra Rao, joint secretary of Steel Executives Federation of India (SEFI) told Bizz Buzz.

While inaugurating the jumbo Covid care centre, Pradhan without referring to disinvestment of RINL, said, "With our domestic producers expanding their production and ongoing talks with global vaccine producers, vaccine supply is set to receive substantial augmentation from June onwards. I am glad that RINL, with the cooperation of the State Government, is vaccinating people. I call upon RINL to purchase more vaccines to vaccinate people in the periphery area, with the collaboration of the State Government."

A release issued by the Press Information Bureau, stated that the Union Minister complimented the steel plants for standing by the people during the Covid-19 pandemic. He said that RINL too has gone beyond the call of duty to ensure supply of liquid medical oxygen to various parts of the country. The First Oxygen Express from RINL reached Maharashtra on April 23 with 100 tonne of LMO. Since April 1 this year, over 6,500 tonne of LMO has been supplied and overall more than 15,000 tonne LMO has been supplied by RINL which is a great service in these unprecedented times.

Pradhan said that today's 300-bed facility is just a beginning. This Covid care centre is going to give a much-needed boost to the health infrastructure in the region in the wake of pandemic. He said that activities are on to commission the new BOO (Build, Operate and Own) plant at the earliest which can add further generating capacity of 100 tonne LMO from Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. In the second phase, the capacity of the Covid care centre will be augmented to make it a 1,000-bed facility. Minister of State for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste, Deputy Chief Minister of AP and Health Minister A Kali Krishna Srinivas, Industries and Commerce Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy, Panchayati Raj and Rural Development, Mines and Geology Minister P Ramachandra Reddy, MPs, MLAs and senior officials from Ministry of Steel and other ministries, AP Government and RINL attended the virtual ceremony.