New Delhi: The subsidiaries of state-run Coal India Limited have set up over 1,500 quarantine/ isolation beds in eight states to aid the government in its fight against COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Coal said on Monday. The news comes on a day when India's second-largest COVID-19 hospital in Bhubaneswar was inaugurated by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The hospital is not just India's second-largest COVID-19 medical facility but it has been funded fully by Coal India subsidiary MCL (Mahanadi Coalfields Limited) and will provide free-of-cost treatment to patients.
MCL, a Coal India subsidiary company, is funding all the operations of the hospital, which has 500 beds and 25 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds with ventilators, said the ministry. While speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the hospital via video conference, Union Minister for Coal Pralhad Joshi said, "Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) will finance all expenses of the COVID-19 country's second largest COVID-19 hospital in Bhubaneswar including cost of treatment of patients for which MCL has already released Rs 7.31 Crores as immediate advance. The hospital is a great medical asset for the people of Odisha."
Joshi said that the Central government has already issued guidelines to allow state governments to utilise up to 30 percent of the balance fund available with District Mineral Fund (DMF) to combat COVID-19. He added that this will also help a mineral-rich state like Odisha in fighting with the pandemic.
"I had personally directed the PSUs of Coal and Mines Ministries to extend the best possible support to the respective state governments to help fight COVID-19, which has engulfed most of the countries of the world. I am happy that these PSUs have risen to the occasion," the minister said.
In Odisha, employees of Bhubaneswar-headquartered NALCO have also pledged to contribute a day's salary, amounting to Rs 2.5 crore, to Odisha Chief Minister's Relief Fund. NALCO has also given its consent to fund a dedicated COVID-19 hospital to be set up by the government of Odisha in Koraput district.