Vishakhapatnam's RINL to supply over 100 tonnes of medical oxygen to Maha: Nitin Gadkari

Amid reports of oxygen shortages from across the country, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's office on Wednesday announced that Visakhapatnam's RINL plant will supply oxygen to Maharashtra. Nitin Gadkari's office tweeted and informed that 97 Metric Tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) will be supplied to Maharashtra daily. So far, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited has supplied 8,842 tonnes of liquid oxygen to Andhra Pradesh and other states. In the month of April, RINL managed to supply about 400 tonnes of liquid oxygen to the states.  

LMO to Maharashtra

The Office of Nitin Gadkari tweeted in Hindi which can be roughly translated , "With the efforts of the Union Minister, Shri @nitin_gadkari. RINL plant in Visakhapatnam will supply 97 Metric Tonnes of liquid oxygen to Maharashtra daily. Earlier, 60 tonnes of liquid oxygen is being supplied from Bhilai. Now, 157 Metric Tonnes of oxygen will be available every day.''

In yet another tweet the office said that "Vidarbha and Marathwada will get relief after supply starts from Visakhapatnam in the next two days. Gadkari Ji has appealed to hospitals to set up air-to-oxygen plants with a bed capacity of around 50 in view of the growing demand for oxygen in the near future".

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), Visakhapatnam

According to the PTI reports, RINL runs a 7.3 million tonnes per annum steel plant that will supply over 100 tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen to Maharashtra in the early hours of April 22. The LMO will be filled in seven empty cryogenic tankers with a total carrying capacity of more than 100 tonnes. It would take nearly 20 to 24 hours to complete the process of filling, weighing and safety checks as per protocol before it leaves for Maharashtra to meet the medical exigencies of COVID-19 patients.

Health Ministry Measures To Increase Medical Oxygen Supply

On April 21, after the states complained of oxygen shortages, the Health Ministry announced three massive measures to increase the supply of medical oxygen. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan tweeted in Hindi and listed out the measures, "Steps taken to increase oxygen supply in hospitals, Restriction on supply of oxygen for industrial purposes. This restriction will not apply to pharma, steel plants, oxygen cylinder manufacturers, petroleum industries etc. The available surplus oxygen will be used as medical oxygen".

(With PTI Inputs)

(Image Credits: ANI/PTI)