India's largest steelmaker JSW Steel Limited is setting up a 1,000-bed temporary hospital to treat Covid-19 patients at Toranagallu adjacent to its township in Ballari district.
The hospital will be equipped with modern machinery including an oxygen facility. It is laying a 4.8 km long dedicated pipeline from its steel plant to supply gaseous oxygen directly to the patients. This will avoid the dependency on liquid oxygen. The hospital will be operational from May 15, a top company said.
"We are creating the required infrastructure for the hospital. It will be managed by the district administration. We have discussed with the deputy commissioner of Ballari and as per their requirements setting up the hospital on the government school campus in Toranagallu with necessary infrastructure,” Rajashekhar Pattanashetty, President, JSW Steel Vijayanagar Works told DH.
He said the company has provided beds, medical equipment, and oxygen pipeline to this hospital, while the Ballari district administration is taking care of appointing doctors, nurses, and other support staff. The district administration has already recruited 25 doctors from the neighbouring Koppal district. The hospital will be ready in three phases, he said.
The hospital will treat patients from the Ballari district and cater to patients from neighbouring districts of Koppal, Gadag, Chitradurga, and Vijayapura among others.
Increasing supplies
Meanwhile, JSW Steel is also ramping up the production of oxygen to 1,200 metric tonnes per day at all its steel plants in the country. Of this, it is manufacturing 860 metric tonnes at its steel plant in Toranagallu.
"We have ramped up the production of oxygen at the cost of a reduction in our steel production keeping in mind the national interest," company sources said.
JSW Steel is now the largest producer of liquid medical oxygen in the country followed by Reliance Industries which is producing 1,000 tonnes per day, according to industry sources.
Recently, JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal said: "Saving lives is more important than producing steel and production can suffer for as long as the country needs any resource available with the company."
Out of 860 metric tonnes of oxygen produced at its plant, it has supplied 430 tonnes to Karnataka state including 209 metric tonnes to Bengaluru city.
India’s daily production of medical oxygen is approximately 7,100 metric tonnes per day (MTPD), which is being increased further, according to CRISIL Research.