Oxygen Swavalamban Yojana: Maharashtra to hike O2 supply ahead of the expected third wave

Ahead of the expectant fear of the third wave surge of coronavirus, the state of Maharashtra on Thursday, signed up for the task of boosting oxygen supply and storage facility to accommodate 3,000 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen every day. At present, the state's LMO generation capacities are maxed at 1,300 tonnes a day. Reportedly, this hiked ambition has been introduced under the banner of 'Oxygen Swavalamban Yojana', to ensure the state's preparedness in the face of anticipated COVID rise.

Maharashtra to boost production, storage & supply of LMO

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The Chief Minister of Maharashtra has called upon the oxygen manufacturers across the state to ramp up their production and storage potential, on a priority basis. To push this initiative further, the CM unveiled the 'Oxygen Swavalamban Yojana' before the representatives of major O2 manufacturing companies in a virtual meet and highlighted the incentives extended to generators to enhance their oxygen supply capacity.

Linde India Ltd. Managing Director M. Banerjee, JSW Techno Project President G. Rathore, Inox Air Products Director Siddharth Jain, Tia Nippon Sansui India's MD N. Vaidyanathan, Air Liquid India Holdings MD Bertrant Moni, Kolhapur Oxygen & Acetylene's CEO R. Gadwe and All India Industrial Gas Manufacturers' Association President Saket Tiku, were present at the state meet, among others.

All these agencies have been ordained to bolster their production and storage, with extra efforts, within the next 3-4 weeks to avert an LMO crisis during the advent of the possible 'third wave'. Oxygen generation projects and plants should come up in remote areas of the state, the CM stated, to ease the availability of oxygen to patients across.

The state will provide full cooperation to the companies, including transportation with adequate number of oxygen tankers, increasing the number of oxygen filling points, converting nitrogen carrying tankers into oxygen tankers to name a few.

Preparing the state to mitigate the 'third wave' horrors

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Maharashtra and the capital, Mumbai, faced an acute oxygen crisis during the peak rise of the second wave of coronavirus in April and May this year. While the increased demand was somehow patched, a laxity now - when active caseload is still high in some districts won't be wise.

"A third wave of Covid-19 is expected. A new variant of the coronavirus has been detected. But we do not know its lethality. Given the potential risks, it is important to make ourselves self-sufficient in oxygen while we still have the time to make preparations," the CM urged.

While the Chief Minister lined up saving people's lives as the first priority, he acknowledged the hampered industrial progress given the lockdown and restrictions. It may be noted that certain relaxations have now been granted to revive full operations, rapidly.