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The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the GNCTD to consider the recommendations of IIT Prof. Sanjay Dhir to augment the production, storage and transport of Medical Oxygen.

The IIT Professor said that the proposal aimed to provide a complete blueprint and infrastructure on how to prepare for the future assuming the third wave is going to be more dangerous than the second wave.  

The recommendations have suggested that the capital will require preparedness of dealing with up to 45000 positive cases if at all, a third wave hits in the future. 

At the outset, Prof Dhir suggested that the top 50 big hospitals in Delhi were required to be made independent by setting up oxygen plants in the hospital premises itself. “This would ease out the situation”, said the Professor.

He further suggested that a quantity equal to one day allocation to Delhi should be stored as buffer stock and for this the GNCTD should step in to help the manufacturers. Moreover, since the cost of setting up these plants is huge, the government should think on revising the prices also.

Apart from the hospitals setting up their own plants, Prof Dhir suggested that Delhi can have it own manufacturing units set up the GNCTD.

On perusing the recommendations, the bench comprising Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh was of the view that these units were required to be set up despite the government many not have return, but the return would be in terms of lives saved in such crisis situation.

Senior Advocate Rahul Mehra appearing for GNCTD said that the government would consider the recommendations having regard to its feasibility.

The Court hence directed the GNCTD to file before the Court a time chart indicating the timelines within which several steps are being planned to be implemented. The said chart is to be submitted within 4 weeks.

The Court further in appreciation of the work that had been put into preparation of the proposal by Dr Dhir, directed the GNCTD to grant him an amount of Rs 1 Lakh as a token of appreciation for his work.