Ladakh Forward Get Oxygen Booster Ahead of Winter

NEW DELHI: The Leh administration has expanded oxygen supply in the forward areas by adding new plants as villagers and troops along the LAC (line of actual control) with China prepare for a harsh winter amid an uneasy border calm.

The latest oxygen plant was started on Sunday at the Nyoma public health centre (PHCs), some 180 km east of Leh. Nyoma is a stone’s throw from the LAC and used as a staging area for eastern Ladakh.

The 100 LPM (litre per minute) plant will boost medicare, especially for Covid, by ensuring uninterrupted oxygen supply to villages dotting the vast expanse of Changthang even during winter. Till now they had to depend on cylinders transported from Leh, which was inadequate and vulnerable to disruptions.

The Nyoma unit is the latest in a series of oxygen plants the Leh district administration, headed by deputy commissioner Shrikant Balasaheb Suse, has commissioned in the last two months. The planning for these plants had started soon after the first Covid wave had ebbed.

A 250 LPM plant is under construction at Tangtse, about 113 km from Leh and the base of 114 Brigade that guards the LAC till Himachal Pradesh. Another 100 LPM unit is coming up at Khalse, 90 km south of Leh and the entry point to the district from Srinagar. A 100 LPM plant was commissioned in July in Diskit to cater to the Nubra valley, north of Leh.

Leh and Kargil has one oxygen plant each in the government sector. Leh has two more plants in the private sector. Strict monitoring and medical planning by the district administration had averted oxygen shortage in Leh even though cases spurted during the second wave.

Source:ToI