The plant, capable of generating 4,00,000 litres of oxygen a day, is being sent to India through 2 aircraft of the German Air Force and is expected to arrive here by end of this week

New Delhi: Germany is now sending a “massive” oxygen generating plant, which will be operated by 12 of its armed forces’ paramedics, in an effort to address the oxygen crisis in India.

The team of paramedics arrived in New Delhi Saturday and will assist Indian medical personnel and experts in operating the giant oxygen generating plant.

“The next airlift from Germany will be of the massive oxygen generating plant, which will produce 4,00,000 litres of oxygen per day and thus will save thousands of lives,” Walter J. Lindner, the German Ambassador to India, said.

“The team of 12 German paramedics from the German Armed Forces Sanitary Command will help set up the machine, which will arrive in India by the end of this week. They will train Indian experts to operate the machine smoothly,” he added.

The plant will be brought in two Airbus Defence and Space A400M transport aircraft belonging to the German Air Force.

The two aircraft are scheduled to land in Delhi by the end of this week and the humongous plant will be installed at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Covid Hospital at Delhi Cantonment, which is run by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

“The plant will remain in India as long as it is needed. We believe in helping friends and partners in these grim times of an unpreceded pandemic,” Lindner said. “Germany is deeply moved by the dramatic health situation in India. Heart-breaking scenes in and around hospitals have emotionally impacted everyone in Germany. Our hearts go out to the incredible number of people in urgent need of oxygen and other critical supplies.”

Delhi has been struggling for medical oxygen ever since Covid cases began to surge in April. Hospitals of all kinds — large or small, public or private — have been sending out SOS calls due to lack of oxygen supplies, a main reason why the Delhi-NCR region has been witnessing so many deaths on a daily basis.

Warranty Agreement With Indemnity, Liability Clauses

According to official sources, these 12 paramedics will leave for Germany once they complete their training modules that are to be conducted on Indian medical personnel. For now, they are being hosted by the Ministry of Health.

Germany will take this plant back home once the oxygen crisis in India is mitigated, official sources said.

“The (oxygen generating) plant sent by Germany is not India compatible and is much larger and bigger in size compared to the British, French or American ones. Some of them have also sent experts,” said an official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Narendra Modi government has also signed a ‘warranty agreement’ with the German government that has an indemnity as well as a liability clause, sources said.

While the duration of the plant has not yet been finalised, the sources said India expects the second Covid wave to end by a month or two, as has been witnessed in some other countries, and that is when New Delhi plans to return the plant to Berlin.

Last Saturday, India received 120 ventilators from Germany along with oxygen concentrators.