Amid oxygen shortage, private companies step forward to assist

Amid nationwide oxygen shortage and lack of other medical utilities, various corporations have come forward to render their services and assist in any way possible. Several companies have repurposed their factories to manufacture medical oxygen to bridge the gap between supply and demand.

Hyderabad: Several hospitals in the country treating Covid-19 patients have been forced to the brink of collapse due to a severe lack of medical oxygen. With several Covid-19 patients leading to the death of a shortage of oxygen in hospitals, a variety of corporations have stepped forward to assist. In times of shortage, a number of major private sector manufacturing companies are repurposing their factories to manufacture medical oxygen.

Here are some of the companies and their contributions towards Indian healthcare in these trying times:

Reliance Industries Ltd

• Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd has tweaked manufacturing at its Jamnagar oil refineries to produce over 700 tonnes a day of medical-grade oxygen which is being supplied free of cost to states badly affected by COVID-19.
• The company's Jamnagar refineries in Gujarat provided 100 tonnes of medical-grade oxygen at first, but that number has now risen to over 700 tonnes. The output of the company's medical-grade oxygen production will be increased to 1,000 tonnes.
• Apart from supplying oxygen to several states, Reliance Foundation said that it is setting up a 1,000-bed Covid-19 care facility with oxygen supply in Gujarat’s Jamnagar where all services will be provided free of cost.

TATA Group

• The Tata Group recently said in a tweet that it is “committed to doing as much as possible” to help India's fight against Covid-19.
• The group announced that it would be importing 24 cryogenic containers to transport liquid oxygen to help overcome its shortage. The cryogen liquid containers are dual walls and are designed for the storage of liquefied gases at very low temperatures. There are also vessels with multilayer insulation.
• Tata Group subsidiaries such as Tata Steel plans to increase liquid oxygen supply to 700 metric tonnes once adequate tankers are available.

Jindal Steel and Power

• Jindal Steel and Power has committed to supply 500 metric tonnes of oxygen and is actively dispatching it to needy hospitals. “We have always stood with the nation in times of need and will continue to support the nation in all possible ways in this war against the pandemic. For JSPL, it is always Nation First,” the company said in a recent tweet.
• Naveen Jindal, chairman of Jindal Steel and Power, is coordinating with many state governments including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana to dispatch liquid oxygen to fulfil the medical oxygen shortage at hospitals.

IOL and Bharat Petroleum

• IOL and Bharat Petroleum State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) have also begun redirecting oxygen generated at their refineries to supplement medical oxygen availability in COVID-19-affected states. At no charge to various hospitals in Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab, IOC began supplying liquid oxygen at 150 tonnes, while at no cost, BPCL began supplying medical oxygen at 100 tonnes per day.

Vedanta

• Vedanta The factory, according to Vedanta, has two oxygen plants with a combined capacity of 1,050 tonnes of oxygen per day. Vedanta has offered to provide oxygen from its decommissioned Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu.

SAIL

• The Steel Authority of India (Sail) reports that the company supplied, up to now, at Bokaro (Jharkhand), Bhilai (Chattisgarh), Rourkela (Odisha), Durgapur and Burnpur, 35,000 tonnes of liquid oxygen of 99.7 per cent purity, from its plants.

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited

• The company has also given liquid oxygen to Andhra Pradesh and other States for use in its Covid treatment facilities (Vizag steel plant) from Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, Germany.
• Five units of oxygen extraction plants have been added for the steel plant air separation system.
• Of these, there are three units capable of producing 550 tonnes per unit per day and two units capable of producing 600 tonnes per unit per day. It produces 2600 tonnes of gas oxygen and 100 tonnes of fluid per day.

ITC Limited

• Consumer goods giant ITC Limited has announced that 24 cryogenic oxygen transport tanks will be airlifted to India to increase transport capacity from production sites to hospitals.

Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO)

• Corporative fertiliser major IFFCO said that it will set up four oxygen plants at a cost of roughly Rs 30 crore in the next 15 days. The oxygen plants will be set up in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha. The plants will be put up at Kalol (Gujarat), Aonla and Phulpur (Uttar Pradesh) and at Paradeep (Odisha), it said.

Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL)

• Another company Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL) has decided to install three pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen generation plants across various health facilities in Odisha.

MI

• Xiaomi has pledged to donate more than Rs. 3 crore to procure 1,000+ oxygen cylinders. The company has said that it will donate the cylinders to hospitals or state governments wherever the need is more urgent. The state governments Xiaomi plans to help include Delhi, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.
• Xiaomi says that it is also partnering with donation platform GiveIndia to raise Rs. 1 crore to support frontline COVID-19 workers across the country. The donation page will be live on Mi.com for all fans, partners, and customers who can make their contributions. The company says that it has cut down its budget allocated for giveaways and social media promotions to help raise the money.