Centre targets 25% jump in supply by weekend

DELHI: Amid higher demand for medical oxygen, the Centre on Tuesday assured an increase of at least 25% in supply from current levels by Saturday while saying that it had already made efforts to raise availability by four times in the last six weeks. In a statement, the government said it had mobilised all resources to ramp up supply to ensure oxygen availability across hospitals. “As a result, the medical oxygen supply has also been increased by nearly four times from 1,273 MT/day in the last week of Feb, 2021 to 4,739 MT/ day on 17th April, 2021,” the statement read.

It added that it had even diverted oxygen meant for industrial purposes for medical use. “Only nine specific industries were now allowed to consume the oxygen produced,” the statement read.

The government said that they have exempted all interstate movement of oxygen tankers from registration of permits to ensure smooth movement and that a rolling tender of 50,000 MT of oxygen had been floated for importing medical oxygen.

Stating that it was ensuring optimal allocation and faster supply of oxygen to most critical regions, the government said that the department of industries and internal trade (DPIIT) had mapped the requirement of each state and was corresponding it with the supplies from industrial units. “DPIIT Secretary, Guruprasad Mohapatra and Additional Secretary, Sumita Dawra, who are overseeing the oxygen supply, have been working despite contracting the virus,” the statement read.

On Monday, the first “Oxygen Express” that is operating via a green corridor, left for Visakhapatnam with seven empty tankers to collect liquid oxygen for transportation to Maharashtra, the worst-affected by Covid-19.