KOLKATA: Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) under the ministry of defence have geared up to provide relief during the ongoing nationwide fight against Covid-19. While OFB has planned 280 isolation beds in 10 hospitals across the country, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has created facilities for 93 people at Bengaluru.

"The OFB's isolation beds are being set up at hospitals or Vehicle Factory Jabalpur, Metal and Steel Factory Ishapore, Gun and Shell Factory Cossipore, Kolkata, Ammunition Factory Khadki, Ordnance Factory Kanpur, Ordnance Factory Khamaria, Heavy Vehicle Factory Avadi and Ordnance Factory Medak. HAL has set up isolation ward facilities with three beds in the ICU and 30 beds in the wards. Besides, a building with 30 rooms has been readied to meet contingencies," a defence ministry official said.

While OFB has already built and dispatched 50 specialised tents at short notice for use in remote places for Covid-19 victims by the Arunachal Pradesh government, factories have also started producing hand sanitizers as per World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. The ordnance factories have already received an order for 13,000 litres of sanitizer from HLL Lifecare Ltd, the nodal agency appointed by the Government of India for centralised procurement.

"The first lot of 1,500 litres of sanitizer was sent by Cordite Factory Aruvankadu in Tamil Nadu on March 31. Two more factories - Ordnance Factory Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh and Ordnance Factory Bhandara in Maharashtra are also ready with bulk production. Together, the factories can produce 3,000 litres of sanitizer per day to meet the country's requirements," the official added.

Ordnance Equipment Factories at Kanpur, Shahjahanpur, Hazratpur and Chennai have also started developing coveralls and masks that are to be part of Personal Protection Equipment. The factories have also arranged for special heat sealing machines to manufacture these garments at very short notice. OFB was also successful in getting samples of the coveralls tested by the Defence Research & Development Establishment at Gwalior. The masks are being tested at South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) in Coimbatore.

OFB will soon commence bulk production of coveralls up to 5,000-6,000 pieces a week. Three machines have also been developed and approved by SITRA to test the efficacy of the coveralls and masks. These will be used during production to maintain standards. Meanwhile, Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), on a request from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare , has agreed to supply 30,000 ventilators for ICUs in the next two months. The design of these ventilators was originally developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and improved upon by M/s Skanray, Mysore. BEL has tied up with this company. Ordnance Factory Medak has also undertaken the repair of ventilators at various hospitals in Hyderabad.

