As a part of its CSR initiative, Maruti Suzuki has set up its first four oxygen PSA generation plants in Haryana. Manohar Lal, Chief Minister of Haryana, inaugurated the first lot, with 20 more plants to come.
Maruti Suzuki India Limited has set up four oxygen PSA generation plants in Haryana. As a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, MSIL utilised its supply chain division and partners — JBML, SKH Metals, Sam Gases and Motherson to help scale up the operations of PSA manufacturers Airox Nigen, Sam Gases and Gaskon. The first phase of the initiative sees the four Oxygen PSA generation plants being commissioned in three government hospitals in Haryana. The Chief Minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal virtually inaugurated the first batch.
R C Bhargava, Chairman, MSIL, said, “Maruti Suzuki is supporting these 3 manufacturers to increase their production of PSA plants for oxygen for Covid. Within one month of our entering this project, our people have been able to increase the capacity of building Oxygen Generator plants by 10 times. This arrangement will deliver about 70 plants in May and 150 in June and this is more than the total estimated production in India in the financial year 2020-21.”
Bhargava added, “On the topic of Oxygen supply chain, I think we should seriously study the benefits of on-site Oxygen generator plants as transporting oxygen over large distances seems to be a very sub-optimal solution,”
The initiative by Maruti Suzuki started when the second wave of Covid-19 had hit India in April 2021. At the time, MSIL had started procuring oxygen generator plants to meet the crisis for its CSR program. Maruti Suzuki claims during that process, it later realised that the demand for oxygen at the time far outnumbered the production capacity. That is when it decided to use its immense experience in manufacturing and supply chain to try and help scale up operations for the three companies in Haryana. Maruti Suzuki claims that this initiative was conducted on a “not-for-profit basis”. The automaker claims that it was able to scale up manufacturing to six plants a day within a month.
The initiative will see MSIL and its suppliers set up 24 such plants as a CSR initiative within the first half of June 2021. Maruti Suzuki has additionally deployed a dedicated team to ensure the plants are installed successfully in hospitals and are operational. The team will continue to monitor the plants for a few months after the installation to ensure they work to a satisfactory level.
Furthermore, for the sustainability of these manufacturing operations and to ensure that medical institutions that may need the facility, MSIL has developed a web portal to help spread the message and channelise enquiries and orders for the future.
Earlier this month, Maruti Suzuki announced that it had set up a 50-covid bed hospital in Gujarat. It was done with the collaboration with Zydus Hospitals with an investment of Rs 126 crore, funded by MSIL’s CSR arm — Maruti Suzuki Foundation. The multi-speciality hospital is situated in Sitapur, Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
