New Delhi, May 5 (IANS): The PM-Cares has allocated funds for the installation of 500 medical oxygen plants across the country within three months, considering the rising demand for the life-saving gas in the wake of the raging second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The order for the installation of the medical oxygen plants was placed on April 24, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHF) said on Tuesday.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in a high-level meeting on April 23 had taken the decision to install five PSA oxygen plants with the help of DRDO at five hospitals in and around the national capital -- AIIMS Trauma Centre, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML), Safdarjung Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College, and AIIMS Jhajjar, Haryana.

Within a week, the first two plants were airlifted from the manufacturing unit Trident Pneumatics Pvt Ltd, Coimbatore, a technology partner of DRDO, which reached Delhi on Tuesday.

The installation work has commenced at two sites -- AIIMS Delhi and RML Hospital -- on a war footing, said the ministry.