Mumbai: Kanjurmarg cold storage facility still not in use

A cops gets registered for vaccination at Nair Hospital. Pic/Ashish Raje

The cold storage facility spread across 5,000 square feet at Kanjurmarg is still vacant though the vaccination drive began nearly two months back. Civic officials claim the stock of vaccines that they have is not large enough for the facility to be put into use. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is expecting a consignment of Covaxin. Citizens still cannot choose between the two vaccines, and so far over five lakh citizens including health and frontline workers have taken Covishield.

While the BMC had identified the first floor of a building at Kanjurmarg, S ward as a Regional Vaccine Store (RVS) exclusively to store the vaccine at one centralised place, the civic administration will activate it only after more stock of vaccines is available. Currently the consignments of vaccine are taken to Parel's storage facility and further distributed to all the vaccination centres in the city. The BMC so far has around two lakh to 2.5 lakh doses available. Officials said the stock was never available in abundance for the Kanjurmarg storage to be put in use. A civic official said, "The vaccination is going on at a fast pace and we need to keep distributing the vaccine. Now the second doses are also being given, but we have a large holding capacity at our vaccination centres itself, and hence the Kanjurmarg facility is not required."

‘No wastage'
Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, 0said, "We did not activate the facility so there are no resources, or services, or manpower that have been wasted." The BMC wants equal distribution of both the vaccines. But even if the new consignment that comes is of Covaxin and not Covishield, the BMC has in store the doses for those who have already been vaccinated with the latter and are awaiting their second doses.