As part of CSR initiatives, Maruti Suzuki has donated and installed four oxygen PSA generator plants, which were virtually inaugurated by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar. This is the first batch of four Oxygen PSA generation plants commissioned in three Government Hospitals of Haryana.
By end-April when the Covid second wave was shooting up, Maruti Suzuki started to look for purchasing oxygen generator plants to meet the crisis for its CSR program. The company discovered that there are very few small-scale manufacturers in the country making these. They were loaded with orders but had little capacity or wherewithal to produce and deliver these in any reasonable period of time. Just paying money could not have helped; they needed manufacturing scale-up.
Maruti Suzuki decided to make it a company initiative rather than just a CSR initiative and activated its supply chain division, roped in its supplier partners JBML, SKH Metals and Motherson to help scale up the manufacturing activity of PSA manufacturers Airox Nigen, Sam Gases and Gaskon. This arrangement was on a not-for-profit basis. In less than a month, this arrangement has reached an output of six plants per day.
The first 24 such plants will be installed by Maruti Suzuki and its suppliers as a CSR initiative within the first half of June ‘21. A separate team has been deployed with round the clock monitoring to ensure that these generator plants are installed successfully in hospitals and are operational. The monitoring will continue for a few months to ensure that these generators keep operating satisfactorily well after installation.
For sustainability of operations of these manufacturing operations and to ensure that needy hospitals in the country are made aware of this opportunity, a website has been created.
This website, http://oxygengenerator.co.in will spread this information and channelize enquiries and orders so that manufacturing and deliveries can be planned for the future.
Lauding the efforts by MSIL, the Chief Minister said, “We recognize Maruti Suzuki’s critical role of being an economic booster to the growth and development of the State of Haryana. Whenever the need has arisen Maruti Suzuki has always been the first company to reach out with adequate help and assistance.”
“In the first wave, they were the first ones to come forward with much needed ventilators in the state. In the second wave, we witnessed a massive shortfall of oxygen supply. Here I appreciate Maruti Suzuki’s approach of helping the small-scale enterprises ramp up their production to meet the requirements of Oxygen PSA generator plants in the country.” he continued.
Explaining the initiative, R C Bhargava, Chairman, MSIL, said, “Maruti Suzuki is supporting these three manufacturers to increase their production of PSA plants for oxygen for Covid. Within one month of 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.”