Udupi: GAIL (India) Limited in order to increase the availability of medical-grade oxygen will build an oxygen generation plant at Taluk Government Hospital in Kundapura and nine other places across the country.

According to Taluk Government Hospital Covid-19 Nodal Officer, Dr Nagesh Kundapur the work on the construction of Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plant will begin soon. The land had been identified for the plant. By June-end or July, the plant will be functional, he added.

He said the plant can generate 500 litres of oxygen per minute and 100 jumbo cylinders can be filled per day. A jumbo cylinder has a capacity of 7,000 litres (gas). Hence there would be sufficient oxygen supply in the taluk from next month onwards.

Udupi Additional Deputy Commissioner Sadhashiv Prabhu said that the total cost of the project was estimated to be around Rs 65.49 lakh. About 40 per cent of the cost was paid in advance.

Fifty per cent is paid against the performance invoice before the dispatch. The remaining 10 per cent is paid after the commissioning of the plant, he added.