Delhi Police creates green corridors for oxygen tankers
As Delhi finds itself short of oxygen supply, the National Capital's police on Monday night stepped up to help a hospital in Paschim Vihar get oxygen in the nick of time, helping 235 coronavirus patients. Two tankers containing oxygen were bound for the medical facility but got stuck in traffic. The police created green corridors to facilitate the tankers' movement. Here's what happened.
Hospital made a distress call to police at 11:30 pm
According to DCP (Outer) Parvinder Singh, the Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute in Paschim Vihar informed the police around 11:30 pm that it would soon run out of oxygen, reports The Hindu. The hospital told police that two tankers — one coming from Pari Chowk in Greater Noida and another from Faridabad — were stuck on the way.
Two teams were sent to Pari Chowk and Badarpur
Subsequently, two police teams were sent to Pari Chowk and the Badarpur border (between Delhi and Faridabad). The teams were asked to contact the drivers, find their exact locations, and escort them to the hospital at the earliest, a Hindustan Times report stated. Additional Deputy Police Commissioner Sudhanshu Dhama said the teams successfully created corridors and led the tankers to the hospital.
Cylinders from other hospitals were also pressed to service
The tanker that was coming from Pari Chowk carried 14,000 liter of oxygen and the other one 5,500 liter. Besides this, Delhi Police also helped the medical facility by bringing them oxygen cylinders from other hospitals. Ten oxygen cylinders were arranged from Saroj Hospital, 15 from Agrasen Hospital, five from ILBS Vasant Kunj, and 10 from Fortis Hospital.
Medical superintendent thanked police for their support
Thanking the police force, Dr. Sunil Sumbil, Medical Superintendent of Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute, said, "The oxygen levels at our facility had reached a critical point." He added that patients' lives would have been endangered without the police's swift action. In a separate incident, Delhi Police also helped another hospital in Nangloi by arranging 20 oxygen cylinders. The hospital housed 35 coronavirus patients.
Today, Delhi Police helped an oxygen tanker reach Rohini
Earlier, Kejriwal, Sisodia urged Centre to provide oxygen to hospitals
Yesterday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had posted a tweet, pleading the Centre to urgently provide oxygen tankers to Delhi, as several hospitals were running out of it. His deputy, Manish Sisodia, also put out a tweet revealing the oxygen status of major hospitals in Delhi at 6 pm. Most of them had stocks that would last merely eight-ten hours, Sisodia's tweet revealed.
Here is the tweet
The top hospitals received a refill late at night
Notably, the hospitals received a refill late at night. The Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital received 10 tonnes of supplies while the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital got 14,000 cubic meters of oxygen. However, officials at Max Hospital in Patparganj faced a terrible situation as the consignment they were expecting at 2 am, arrived at 8 am. The facility has 200 patients on oxygen support.
