DPSUs and OFB extending all assistance to civil administration to fight increase in Corona Virus cases

Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) are extending all possible assistance to the civil administration/state governments in the fight against the recent spike in Corona cases across the country. In this hour of crisis, they are catering to the civilian population from their services in coordination with the state governments, as directed by Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh in recently done review meetings. A 180 bed corona care centre, with ICU, oxygen and ventilator support, set up by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is functional in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The DPSU has also prepared a 250-bed facility in Bengaluru and handed over to municipal authorities under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). A 70-bed facility in Koraput, Odisha and a 40-bed hospital in Nasik, Maharashtra are also operational. Work has also been undertaken by HAL to set up a 250 bed corona care facility in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. It is expected to be operational in the first week of May. Further, HAL is planning to provide more ventilators and oxygen points at Bangalore and Lucknow.

The OFB is giving COVID care services, including oxygen beds, at their facilities in 25 places in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha and Uttarakhand. It has earmarked nearly 60 per cent of its existing strength for COVID care. Precisely, 813 beds out of total strength of 1,405 are now reserved for COVID patients. These facilities are in Pune, Ambernath, Nagpur, Bhandara, Chanda, Varangaon and Bhusawal in Maharashtra and at Ishapore and Kolkata in West Bengal. Other places where OFB is providing its facilities for COVID care are Kanpur (2), Shahjahanpur (1) and Muradnagar (1) in Uttar Pradesh; Jabalpur (3), Itarsi (1) and Katni (1) in Madhya Pradesh; Avadi (1), Aruvankadu (1) and Tiruchirappalli (1) in Tamil Nadu; Medak (1) in Telangana; Dehradun (1) in Uttarakhand and Badmal (1) in Odisha.