THREAD//
Why India is facing oxygen shortage and the steps that are being undertaken to overcome it.

While writing this, I want to clear I'm neither a left winger, nor a right-winger, but a centrist trying to present facts to you.

Before the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, 7,000 tonnes of oxygen was being manufactured on daily basis in the country, but now this requirement has increased by 7 TIMES.

Along with the Industrial & Medical Oxygen Gas Plants, dedicated solely to the production of oxygen, many steel plants and oil refineries have diverted towards the production of Oxygen.

As many major steel & oil refinery plants are located in eastern regions of the country like Andhra P., Jharkhand & Odisha, they have a considerable amount of oxygen as compared to other states. Here, the problem is with "storage and distribution system" i.e. logistics.

We need to realise Liquid oxygen is not meant to travel thousands of kilometres, but still Indian Railways have thought of a RoRo Train (Roll on, Roll off) on which empty tankers will be ferried to oxygen-surplus areas & delivered to states needing it.

The Business tycoons of India are doing their best to meet this shortage.
TATA, Reliance and SAIL are doing the maximum along with other companies like IFFCO, BPCL & IOC, AMNS.

• TATA has imported 24 cryogenic containers to transport liquid oxygen and it aims to increase this number to 38 by end of the month.

• They are supplying 200-300 tonnes of oxygen daily, which they also aim to increase to 700 tonnes.

• Reliance is supplying 700 tonnes/day free of cost.

• It aims to increase its production to 1000 tonnes/day.

• SAIL- 33,300 tonnes of oxygen supplied so far.

• Jindal Steel Works (JSW)- 185 tonnes oxygen/day and commited to supply 500 tonnes/day.

• AMNS India- 200 tonnes/day.

• IOC- Begun supply of 150 tonnes of oxygen free of cost to north-west areas.

•BPCL- Begun supply of 100 tonnes of oxygen at no cost.

•IFFCO- Claimed to set up 4 major oxygen plants in next 15 days.

•Mi India- pledged Rs 3 crore to procure 1000+ oxygen concentrators for hospitals across states.

•PPL- Decided to install 3 PSA oxygen generation plants

Siddharth Jain, director of INOX AIR, said, “People need to understand that this is not the government’s fault or the government’s doing. There is a supply-demand variance where some states have excess supply.”

We need to accept the fact that a country cannot rise its production of a particular resource by almost 7 times the original production in a fraction of month.

No doubt it is a matter of serious concern, but at this very moment, the best we can do is take care of ourselves, our family and doing the maximum we can on our part.
Thanks.