PIB News Update: Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways (I/C) and Chemical & Fertilizers, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, chaired a meeting to explore possibility of production of oxygen in their plants, with fertilizers companies of Public Sector, Private Sector as well as Co-Operative sector.
Shri Mandaviya called upon the fertilizer companies to help the society during this pandemic time by reorienting their existing capacity of oxygen production & augmenting the supply of medical grade oxygen to the hospitals. The Fertilizer companies welcomed the initiative of MoS and readily shown interest to join the efforts of Government of India to fight COVID -19 situation in the country. The outcome of the meeting is as follows;
- IFFCO is putting up an oxygen plant with capacity of 200 cubic meters per hour in its KALOL unit in Gujarat and their total capacity would be 33,000 cubic meters per day.
- GSFC made small modification in their plants and started supplying liquid oxygen.
- GNFC has also started supply of liquid oxygen for medical purpose after starting of air separation unit.
- GSFS & GNFC has already started process to enhance their oxygen production capacities.
- The other fertilizer companies will set up medical plants in hospitals/plants at selected locations in the country through CSR funding.
Altogether it is expected that approximately 50 Metric Tons (MT) of medical oxygen per day can be made available for COVID patients by the fertilizer Plants. These steps will augment the medical grade oxygen supply to hospitals in the country in the coming days.