Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday directed the Defence Public Sector Undertaking Units (DPSUs) and the Ordinance Factory Board (OFB) to prepare contingency plans for resumption of operations after the lockdown is lifted to compensate for the lost working time to the extent possible and ramp up production, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
Mr. Singh’s directive came at a review meeting held through videoconference.
“Several units of the OFB and the DPSUs, which are located in non-red zones have already started operations. Almost all DPSUs have made contingency plans to ramp up production after the lockdown is lifted by drawing up plans to work in three shifts and extending the work days from five to six days a week,” the Ministry said in a statement. Work would be carried out by observing social distancing and other relevant health guidelines.
The Department of Defence Production (DDP), the MoD, the OFB and the DPSUs made a contribution of ₹77 crore to the PM CARES Fund generated from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds and one-day salary contribution, the statement said.
Separately, the Defence Research and Development Services (DRDS), the main cadre of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), to which about 7000 scientists belong, made a contribution of ₹10 lakh to the PM CARES Fund in addition to one-day salary. A demand draft for the amount was handed over to Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik by the All India DRDS Association (AIDA) last week.
During the conference, the OFB said it had manufactured 12,800 overalls, developed specialised machines for testing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), supplied 6.35 lakh masks to local authorities and 340 specialised tents to Arunachal Pradesh for COVID-19 patients.
Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) had made arrangements to manufacture 12,000 ventilators in May and another 18,000 in June, the statement said. Around 3,000 engineers would participate in training health professionals in operationalising these ventilators, it added.
