COVID: CM Jagan's Andhra Pradesh govt issues Medical Oxygen Manufacturing Policy 2021-22

Amid the surge in COVID-19 cases in the state of Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has unveiled the AP Industrial Gases and Medical Oxygen Manufacturing Policy 2021-22. CM is keen to ensure that the state doesn’t land in a precarious situation due to lack of production.

Andhra Pradesh govt releases new policy

The demand for medical Oxygen has grown due to the COVID second wave and is currently at 600-700 MT. The state’s capacity is currently at 364 MT and the rest of the demand is being met through supplies from Odisha, West Bengal and Karnataka. The main aim of the policy is to augment the Oxygen Manufacturing capacity from the existing ~360MT capacity to 700 MT.

AP Industrial Gasses and Medical Oxygen Manufacturing Policy is prepared by the department of industries in consultation with the Department of Health and Family welfare taking into account the need for medical oxygen. Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy has ensured that the state formulates best-in-class policy compared to the other states so that the private sector is incentivized to participate and set up the much-needed capacities.

Salient Features of the Policy:

1. The policy aims to distribute the manufacturing across the state by zoning methodology
2. The incentives in the policy allow for subsidizing Capex (30% up to 30lakh/MT) as well as Opex (power subsidy up to INR 2 per unit) of the unit allowing them to maintain profitability during these uncertain times
3. The policy aims to support all the technologies such as PSA (pressure swing adsorption), Liquid Oxygen, and Helium Mixed Oxygen (Heliox)
4. The policy aims to revive the sick PSA units to provide quick augmentation of the oxygen manufacturing capacity
5. The policy will be effective from 15th April 2021 and will be valid for a period of 1 year. The policy incentives first movers and the time period for commissioning PSA, Lox and Heliox are within 6 months, 18 months, and 24 months respectively from the date of sanction.

The Andhra Pradesh state government has already received intent from companies such as Nova Air (Sri City), Air Liquid (Kadapa), Praxair (Chittoor), and Inox Air Products (Vijayawada/Guntur) which will augment the oxygen production capabilities in the state. Further, 6 sick PSA units have already been identified and refurbished for producing oxygen. There has been a lot of interest from entrepreneurs to set up small and medium scale oxygen (PSA) plants which can be installed in a span of 3-6 months and the policy has been designed to support these entrepreneurs of all scale. Zeolite molecular sieve is a key component in the oxygen PSA plants and the GoAP is in touch with various suppliers across the globe for importing the material.

COVID-19 situation in Andhra Pradesh

As per the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Andhra Pradesh on Monday reported 2,969 new COVID cases with 21,101 recoveries and 101 deaths. The total active cases of the state remain at 2,10,436 with 12,15,683 total recoveries and 9,372 deaths. Around 21.74 lakh people have received both doses of the COVID vaccine whereas 31.59 lakh people have received the first dose.

(Image: PTI)