COVID-19: Reliance Industries sending 100 tonnes oxygen from refineries amid shortage

 Amid the alarming increase of coronavirus cases daily in India, billionaire and business Tycoon Mukesh Ambani recently donated oxygen cylinders produced at his refineries to help India battle the ongoing pandemic outbreak. The ongoing pandemic has completely damaged the commercial capital Mumbai as daily new infections see a record increase. Eknath Shinde, urban development minister took to Twitter and penned a series of posts while sharing that Reliance Industries Ltd, which operates the world's biggest refining complex in Maharashtra, has started supplying oxygen from Jamnagar in Gujarat to Maharashtra at no cost. 

Mukesh Ambani donates oxygen cylinders 

The state will get 100 tons of gas from Reliance. In his tweet, Shinde mentioned that the number of coronavirus patients is increasing rapidly in many areas of Mumbai. At the same time, he wrote that ‘the demand for oxygen supply to patients has also increased tremendously. ‘ He informed about visiting Linde's Oxygen Company to review the situation and check what best can be done to bridge the gap.

In another tweet, Shinde revealed that ‘Reliance's Jamnagar plant will supply 100 metric tonnes of additional oxygen to Maharashtra. The Coordinating Committee of Divisional Commissioner, Raigad and Thane District Collector and FDA Commissioner will coordinate the supply of oxygen.” Reliance's twin oil refineries in Jamnagar have through minor process modification converted industrial oxygen into medical-use oxygen that can be administered to COVID-19 patients low on oxygen. "The supplies will be free of cost since it is for a humanitarian cause," one of the persons said.

More on oxygen shortage 

Meanwhile, to ensure an adequate supply of medical oxygen amid rising cases of COVID-19, the Empowered Group 2 (EG2) on April 15 decided to float a tender for the import of 50,000 MT of medical oxygen. After holding a review meeting over the availability of essential medical equipment and oxygen, EG2 shared that there has been an increasing demand for medical oxygen, especially from the 12 states with a high burden of active COVID cases namely– Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan. "While the demand in Maharashtra is expected to beyond the available production capacity of the state, states like Madhya Pradesh do not have any production capacity to meet their demand for medical oxygen. Besides, there is a trend of increasing demand in other oxygen-producing states such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, etc," it noted after the meeting.

(With inputs from PTI)

(Image credit: PTI)