Barmer, May 11, 2021.

With Covid-19 cases rising sharply, India’s leading metals and oil and gas company, Vedanta Limited has come out firmly in support of the Rajasthan government in its efforts to provide priority medical care to the Covid affected people. 

Vedanta, through its flagship units Hindustan Zinc and Cairn Oil & Gas, is setting up four state-of-the-art ‘field hospitals’ with critical care beds across the state. The hospitals, with a capacity of 100 beds each, will come up in Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand and Barmer. The ‘field hospitals’ will be housed in air-conditioned tents with full electrical support and designed specifically for Covid care. The critical care facilities will have 90 beds equipped with oxygen support while the remaining will have ventilator support.

This is in addition to the 700 hospital beds that the company’s business units are providing for COVID patients across different locations. The BUs are working on a plan to increase the number of beds Covid patients to 1,000 over the next few days.

Cairn recently converted a ‘Balika Chhatravas’ into a 100-bed COVID Care Centre overnight in Barmer, Rajasthan. This was done in collaboration with the District Administration and Health Department. A 100-bed set up in a girl’s college is also underway. In addition to this, all patients at the COVID Care Centre and District Hospital are being provided daily nutritious meals. Cairn has also provided 13 of its tankers and a few hundred cylinders to help in transportation of oxygen to various locations across the state.

Talking about Cairn’s efforts, Prachur Sah, Deputy CEO, Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Ltd., said, “We are actively supporting the district and state administration in the fight against COVID-19 in Rajasthan. So far, we have made oxygen tankers available for the transport of liquid oxygen across the state. In addition, we have also supplied 5000 VTM kits and helped in setting up beds. We are committed to the health and safety of our communities and we stand shoulder to shoulder with the authorities to fight the pandemic.”

According to Mr. Mewaram Jain, MLA, Barmer: "In view of the increasing number of COVID patients, the work of setting up the COVID Care Center in Barmer's Government Girls College, in collaboration with Vedanta Cairn Oil and Gas, is almost in its final stage I visited the COVID center with Cairn officials and reviewed the arrangements. Thanks for the continuous support by Vedanta in times of crisis."

Vedanta is working on its flagship initiative to create additional capacity of 1,000 critical care beds which will be placed in ‘field hospitals’ across 10 cities across the country. The company has pledged Rs 150 Cr to help the country in its fight against the rapidly spreading second wave of Covid 19. This is over and above Rs. 201 Cr that was spent by the Vedanta group last year.