February 11, 2022
Since the start of the Covid pandemic, the Thane Municipal Corporation has spent over ₹300Cr to improve health infrastructure and take prophylactic measures to deal with the first, second and third waves; the corporation had spent ₹80Cr in 2020-21, which increased to ₹233Cr in 2021-22; TMC has allocated Rs100Cr budget for the coming financial year
Since the start of the Covid pandemic, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has spent over ₹300Cr to improve health infrastructure and take prophylactic measures to deal with the first, second and third waves.
The corporation had spent ₹80Cr in 2020-21, which increased to ₹233Cr in 2021-22. In the present budget estimate, an allocation of ₹100Cr is made for Covid, which the civic chief claimed could be increased if needed.
Vipin Sharma, TMC commissioner, said, “Since the onset of the pandemic, the chronology of the Covid waves is similar. The first, second and third waves begin during the first half of the year. Even though the third wave was mild, we have to anticipate a new variant and allocate funds accordingly. For the coming fiscal year, we have allocated ₹100Cr to fight the pandemic.”
Last year, the second wave started in March and it was at its peak for the next few months. The city witnessed acute shortage of oxygen, beds and medicines. “We have spent ₹233Cr on setting up a Covid hospital at Parking Plaza and Voltas, increasing the oxygen capacity, providing isolation centres and buying medicines. Apart from these, various measures like contact tracing and house-to-house survey was also undertaken. All these led to the added expenses this year. Though the third wave was mild, we have still allotted ₹100Cr and if need be, it can be increased.”
Sharma added that setting up vaccination centres, too, was included in the expenses. The city, as per the civic chief’s data, has so far vaccinated 90% of the target population with the first dose and 70% with the second.
The corporation has increased the oxygen capacity to 62 tons ahead of the third wave, as the peak oxygen requirement in the second wave was 48 ton. The bed capacity has also increased from 4,499 to 8,083.
The Parking Plaza facility, at present, has 1,100 beds that are all oxygen beds. The corporation plans to convert the facility into a full-fledged multi-speciality hospital once the Covid scenario improves.
Source : www.hindustantimes.com
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