PUNE: The Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) of Ministry of Defence (MoD) have pitched in to shore up the national fight against COVID-19.
MEDICAL FACILITIES
The OFB has planned 280 isolation beds across ten hospitals spread over six states, including 30 beds at Ammunition Factory, Khadki (Maharashtra). Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bengaluru has isolation ward facility with three beds in the Intensive Care Unit and 30 beds in the wards. Also, a building having 30 rooms was readied. In all, 93 persons can be accommodated at HAL facility.
The OFB has manufactured and dispatched 50 specialised tents for COVID-19 patients to Arunachal Pradesh government at short notice.
SANITISER
Development and production of hand sanitiser as per World Health Organization (WHO) standards has been undertaken in factories of OFB. They have received a requirement of 13,000 litres from HLL Lifecare Limited (HLL), the nodal agency appointed by Government of India for centralised procurement.
Two more factories, namely Ordnance Factory (OF), Itarsi (Madhya Pradesh) and OF, Bhandara (Maharashtra) are ready with bulk production.
PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT: COVERALL AND MASKS
Ordnance Equipment Factories located at Kanpur, Shahjahanpur, Hazratpur (Firozabad) and Chennai are engaged in developing coverall and masks. They have also arranged special heat-sealing machines for the manufacture of these garments at very short notice.
Factories Board requested Defence Research & Development Establishment, Gwalior. It was successful in getting the first of samples of coveralls tested at Gwalior. The OFB is commencing shortly bulk production of coveralls up to 5,000 to 6,000 pieces per week.
VENTILATORS
Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has stepped in at the request of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to manufacture and supply 30,000 ventilators for ICUs within the next two months.
