COVID-19: Tata, Reliance, JSW among firms contributing to resolve oxygen shortage in India

With many COVID-19 patients dying in the country due to lack of oxygen at hospitals, a number of corporates have stepped forward to help tackle the crisis. A host of large private firms in the manufacturing sector such as Tata, Reliance and JSW Steel have repurposed their factories to produce medical oxygen to overcome the scarcity.

Tata Group

Tata Group has decided to import 24 cryogenic containers to transport liquid oxygen via specially chartered flights. Tata Group said in a tweet that the company is putting all efforts to support India’s healthcare infrastructure in times of need.

Apart from this, Tata group subsidiaries like Tata Steel are also responding to the national urgency by diverting oxygen to States. The company is supplying 200-300 tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen daily to various State governments and hospitals to meet the rising demand.

Reliance Industries Ltd

Meanwhile, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd has changed manufacturing at its Jamnagar oil refineries to produce over 700 tonnes of medical-grade oxygen every day which is supplied free of cost to States severely affected by COVID-19.

The Jamnagar refineries in Gujarat which initially produced 100 tonnes of medical-grade oxygen has now been ramped up to over 700 tonnes. The company plans to further scale its oxygen production capacity to 1,000 tonnes.

JSW Steel

Similarly, JSW Steel is planning to ramp up production and supply 600 tonnes of oxygen per day from its three plants spread across Karnataka (Ballari), Maharashtra (Dolvi) and Tamil Nadu (Salem). The company last week had announced that it is supplying 185 tonnes of oxygen from its Dolvi plant.

On Tuesday, JSW Steel’s Deputy Managing Director, Vinod Nowal had a discussion with Karnataka Minister Murugesh R Nirani on the shortage of oxygen in the state and agreed to supply 400 tonnes of oxygen per day to treat COVID-19 patients.

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (Vizag Steel Plant) has also been supplying liquid oxygen to Andhra Pradesh and other states for COVID treatment facilities. The steel plant’s Visakhapatnam facility has five units of oxygen extraction plants, of which three units have the capacity to produce 550 tonnes per unit per day and two units have the capacity to produce 600 tonnes per unit per day.

The plant produces 2,600 tonnes of gaseous oxygen, and 100 tonnes of liquid oxygen every day. The liquid form gas is now being supplied to hospitals for medical purposes for the last couple of days.

Vedanta group

Vedanta group has also offered to supply oxygen from its Sterlite copper plant at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu that is currently closed. The company has written letters to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan; Tamil Nadu CM Edapaddi Palaniswami and the state’s Chief Secretary seeking its opening for the purpose.

Vedanta said that the plant contains two oxygen plants with a combined capacity to produce 1,050 tonnes of oxygen per day. The plant was shut down on the orders passed by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.

Jindal Steel and Power

Similarly, Jindal Steel and Power has committed to providing 500 metric tonnes of oxygen and is actively supplying it to hospitals in need. “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 several state governments including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana to dispatch liquid oxygen to fulfil the demand for medical oxygen.

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. The ISO-certified tanks will be flown in from neighbouring Asian countries in collaboration with German company Linde which is also a major supplier of medical oxygen.

Apart from this, some state-owned companies like Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) have also started diverting oxygen at their refineries to augment states battling critical shortages amid a frightening wave of COVID-19 infections.

IOC has supplied 150 tonnes of liquid oxygen at no cost to various hospitals in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, while BPCL had started supplying 100 tonnes of medical-grade oxygen per day for free.