COVID-19: Odisha sends 67 medical oxygen tankers to seven states
Apr 26, 2021
Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], April 26 : In order to meet the needs of coronavirus patients, Odisha sent a total of 67 tankers carrying 1,268 metric tonne (MT) medical oxygen to seven states till 2 pm on Monday, police officials said.
Odisha police have formed a dedicated corridor with round-the-clock monitoring to ensure uninterrupted loading and transportation of the Oxygen from Rourkela, Jajpur, Dhenkanal and Angul plants of Odisha to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Chhattisgarh.
According to the Odisha police, In the last four days, two tankers that carried about 30.67 MT of medical Oxygen have been escorted to Chhattisgarh, four tankers with about 66.39 MT of medical Oxygen to Uttar Pradesh and 8 tankers with about 187.512 MT to Haryana.
"Eight tankers with about 131.23 MT have been escorted to Madhya Pradesh, six tankers with about 102.06 MT to Maharashtra, 17 tankers with about 291.769 MT to Telangana and 22 tankers with about 458.3 MT have been dispatched to Andhra Pradesh," the police said.
"A Special Cell was formed under Y K Jethwa, Additional Director General (ADG) Law and Order as the Nodal Officer for coordinated action for loading and transportation of medical oxygen by Odisha to States facing deficit, District Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) or DCsP and Range Deputy Inspector General DIG or IG or CP are supervising the movement personally within their jurisdictions," the police said.
Amid an acute shortage of medical oxygen in several parts of the country, Odisha is sending the surplus liquid medical oxygen (LMO) to many states.
Odisha's Industry Secretary Hemant Sharma on Sunday told ANI that the total production capacity of LMO in the state has now been enhanced to 350 tonnes per day through five plants across states.
"Last week our capacity was 300 tonnes per day. Now it has gone up to 350 tonnes. We will increase it by 15 tonnes more by tomorrow evening," Sharma said.
The state government is in continuous touch with industries to ramp up the oxygen production in Odisha.
The Odisha government is trying to start oxygen production in two more plants -- Adhunik's plant in Sundargarh and a central government plant in Kalingnagar.
Odisha health department on Monday informed that 6,599 new COVID-19 cases, 3,464 recoveries and nine deaths were reported in the state in the last 24 hours.
