By Solar Times Bureau
Acknowledging the call of Shri R. K. Singh, the Union Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy, the NTPC Limited, a central PSU under Ministry of Power, is working proactively to mitigate the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) spread by ensuring both the uninterrupted power supply and utilisation of its infrastructure and CSR funds for humanitarian relief measures.
Expediting its vigil against the global pandemic of COVID-19, NTPC has already utilised its 45 hospitals/health units to make isolation facilities and procured the requisite equipment for the medical staff to handle such cases effectively. About 168 isolation beds, with oxygen supply, have been created across all hospitals/health units and an additional 122 beds can be made available on need basis. Two hospitals have been made ready for use by state governments to tackle COVID cases including the hospital at Badarpur in Delhi and medical college hospital of Sundergarh at Odisha.
Availability and access to proper healthcare equipment is the need of the hour, a budget of nearly Rs 3 Crore has been allocated for procurement of equipment. At present, there are 7 ventilators in NTPC’s project hospitals. 18 Advanced Level Ambulances with ventilators, another 18 ventilators and 520 IR thermometers are in the process of procurement for different hospitals.
Personal Protective Equipment and hand sanitisation have emerged as the biggest prevention mechanisms against the deadly Coronavirus, therefore, NTPC has shared testing, treatment and transport guidelines as issued by MOHFW with all the CMOs. The Medical staff has also been trained over video calls about the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Further 1200 PPE kits, 1,20,000 surgical masks and over 33,000 gloves, 5000 aprons, 8000 shoe covers and 535 litres of sanitizers have been dispatched to all the project and stations.
Since prevention seems to be crucial at this juncture, several units of NTPC have taken up prevention and relief activities and an amount of Rs 3.50 Crore has been committed for this purpose till date.
As part of its initiatives to support the state governments to combat Coronavirus, NTPC is extending help to Odisha government by contributing Rs 35 lakh per month to support the cost of rental charge of the 120-bed Salandi Hospital at Bhadrak and the lodging and boarding of medical and paramedical staff engaged in the hospital for the smooth running of the COVID-19 Care Centre. The financial assistance will be made for 3 months with a total financial implication of Rs 1.05 Crore for operation and maintenance of COVID Care Centre.
Furthermore, NTPC is providing financial support of Rs 6.36 Crore to district administration/local authorities to deal with this pandemic, for arranging medical support, and distribution of PPEs, food packets. Furthermore, as part of its corporate social responsibility, NTPC Rihand handed over 2,800 sacks of food grains and food items packets worth Rs. 17 lakh to the district administration for distributing among underprivileged families. NTPC Vindhyachal committed Rs 25 lakh as financial aid for relief measures to Indian Red Cross Society, Singrauli.
By utilising the opportunity given by Government of India to utilise it’s CSR funds to combat COVID-19 , the NTPC has stepped up its vigil against the global pandemic of COVID-19 by contributing Rs 250 crores to PM CARES fund .Additionally, the salary contribution of Company Employees’ of Rs 7.50 crores has also been deposited to PM CARES Fund.