Chennai, April 27(BPNS)
Tamil Nadu state government is working closely with the Confederation of Indian Industries(CII), Tamil Nadu chapter to increase the production of Oxygen and to divert Industrial Oxygen to the health facilities. With the Covid cases mounting in the state and the requirement of Oxygen increasing, the government has to seek the support and help of the industries and CII.
The Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL) has an installed capacity of 1400 normal cubic meters per hour (Nm3/hour) of Oxygen. The CPCL is however producing only 800 Nm3/hour and to increase the production it has to install a compressor. This will take a couple of weeks for the plant to become fully operational.
The Confederation of Indian Industries(CII), Tamil Nadu chapter has already communicated with all the industry bodies across the state to divert the production of Industrial Oxygen to the health facilities. The CII has already formulated a Covid task force and this group is monitoring the industrial units of the state and has already established contact with around 30 major hospitals of the state.
Tamil Nadu state health secretary J Radhakrishnan while speaking to BPNS said, “We are already in touch with the Industry bodies including CII for Oxygen requirement. Presently we have the Oxygen required for the state but we are anticipating more requirements and hence are trying to source maximum Oxygen.”
Covid -19 active cases in Tamil Nadu has crossed 1 lakh and hence the requirement of Oxygen is around 350MT per day while during last year at the peak of Covid, requirement was around 260 MT.
In the state the gap of demand and supply is very near and hence the government is for increasing the production of Oxygen as it does not want any shortage if the number of Covid cases rises up.
Tamil Nadu is producing 400 MT of Oxygen per day but the Central government has diverted 80 MT of Oxygen per day to other states and this is a cause of concern. Union Territory of Puducherry has a production capacity of 120 MT of Oxygen per day and Tamil Nadu is taking 40 MT of Oxygen from Puducherry on a daily basis.
The number of people who require Oxygen has gone up to 3 to 4 times and also the requirement of Oxygen to patients have gone up from 4 to 6 litres to 10- 15 litres.
CII Tamil Nadu Chairperson, S Chandrakumar while speaking to BPNS said ,”We are in total support of the government and have already set up a Covid task force for the requirement of Oxygen and we have already associated with 25 to 30 large hospitals of Tamil Nadu.”
