Sewa International to Build 100 Oxygen Generation Plants in India

An image of an oxygen generation plant from one of Sewa’s suppliers. “This will also make India future-ready to face a possible third wave of the pandemic,” said Arun Kankani, Indian American president of Sewa International in Houston, Texas. (photo provided)

India-West Staff Reporter

Sewa International will be funding the installation of 100 oxygen generation plants in hospitals across India to ease oxygen scarcity in the country, according to a press release. It has ordered 20-tonn Zeolites (molecular sieves that absorb nitrogen and produce oxygen as a product) from Honeywell to establish up to 30 plants immediately. As part of these efforts, it has placed orders for 15 oxygen generation plants to be set up in the next 8-12 weeks at a cost of about $1.8 million.

Sewa International has started a fundraising campaign to construct these oxygen plants. A donation of $61,000, $81,000 or $121,000 can help establish one such oxygen plant of a desired size. The campaign will help distribute oxygen generation capability equitably to different parts of the country bridging the urban and rural divide in India’s healthcare sector.

“Based on our reading of the current situation, Sewa International has made a strategic decision to establish oxygen generating plants in India to enhance India’s capacity to face the present COVID-19 crisis. This will also make India future-ready to face a possible third wave of the pandemic,” said Arun Kankani, Indian American president of Sewa International in Houston, Texas.

Sewa has identified three vendors from India to supply machinery required to build these plants. The first 15 plants will be a mix of 250 LPM and 500 LPM capacity and each can support about 20 to 40 ICU beds. Sewa International is working with 40-50 hospitals across India to establish these plants.

“One 500 LPM plant can support a 200-bed hospital with 40 ICU beds or can produce 110 cylinders of oxygen a day. Including site preparation expenses and taxes, one such plant would cost about $121,000. When we calculate the initial investment and annual maintenance costs, it will still work out to be less expensive for hospitals than buying oxygen cylinders or liquid oxygen from a vendor,” Sewa’s vice president for Technology Services Anil Deshpande said.