Bengaluru: With the second wave of the pandemic hitting India hard, the cries for oxygen have hit the roof.  

As helpless patients ferret for the all-important gas, Indian Navy has developed what is called Oxygen on Wheels. These are mobile oxygen generation plants. They are designed and developed by Naval Dockyard Visakhapatnam under the Eastern Naval Command (ENC).

The naval dockyard technical team conceived and developed two oxygen generation plants each with 100 litres per minute capacity, designed to provide a direct feed to any hospital's pipeline system.

What is notable here is that these plants can be moved easily and be connected to remote hospitals and connected to the hospital's fixed Oxygen piping system - to serve as the main feed for up to 16 beds.

“The oxygen system can also serve as a backup to prevent incidents of low oxygen pressure in the hospitals. Such a system has been conceived and implemented to support the Government efforts during the on-going oxygen crises, especially in smaller hospitals and rural areas that may not have the requisite infrastructure,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

Also the diving school of the southern naval command of the Indian Navy has conceptualized and designed an 'Oxygen Recycling System' (ORS) to alleviate the existing Oxygen (O2) shortages.

The ORS is designed to extend the life of the existing medical O2 cylinders two to four times.