Even as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has completed setting up of oxygen plants, having a total capacity of 55 metric tonnes, at nine of the civic hospitals, the project that was supposed to be completed by July, was completed only in August. The BMC is now likely to penalise the contractor of these plants as they have not adhered to the deadline and delayed it by almost four weeks. The fine is likely to be one per cent of the contract cost for the delay of every week.

With an eye on the third wave and the state government warning the districts and the corporations about the delta variant, the overcautious BMC had fast tracked its work on more supply of oxygen in the city. It was following the shortage of oxygen supply faced during the second wave, that the civic body had to run helter-skelter for the procurement of oxygen as the transport was delayed and the patients had to be shifted from one hospital to another.