{"id":161321,"date":"2021-04-30T16:51:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T11:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/?p=161321"},"modified":"2021-11-16T19:46:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T14:16:18","slug":"centre-oxygen-plan-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/top-news-of-the-day\/news\/centre-oxygen-plan-supreme-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally, Centre submits its plan to ramp up oxygen manufacture, supply to Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After days of wandering and thousands of deaths, the Centre today finally presented a blueprint, in what looked like a plan on how to acquire and transport oxygen to the regions of the country that need it most, from regions which were surplus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan also included setting up of manufacturing units, import and also of converting cylinders used for other gases to oxygen cylinders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susmita Deora, from the Ministry of Health, showed the Supreme Court<\/a><\/strong> Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, a Powerpoint presentation on medical oxygen-related issues for COVID management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Also: <\/strong>“We want to save lives. Please come up with an effective plan,\u201d Supreme Court tells Centre<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said, \u201cThe presentation shows statistical data on production and supply status of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO). There is enhanced production of oxygen in the country from about 6,000 MTs per day in August, 2020 to about 9,000 MTs per day, as on date. New oxygen plants were commissioned in Modinagar (Inox) and Pune (Air liquide). High concentration of Oxygen sources exist in steel plants on the eastern side, with substantial stock of oxygen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDemand for medical oxygen is mostly concentrated in the west (Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan), North (UP, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab) and central India (MP, Chattisgarh). Hence, there is heavy pressure on few facilities in the north and west, such as Air Liquide Panipath, Inox Barotiwala, Inox Modinagar and Inox Bhiwadi. Besides, the facilities within Maharastra and Karnataka are also under heavy pressure, Ms Deora continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo meet the demand, a supply plan for oxygen has been planned, wherein states are mapped to oxygen sources and quantity specified within a rolling plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oxygen Supply Plan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInitially, the allotment of medical oxygen (MO) was based on the direction of EG2; projection for high burden states were coordinated by MOHFW with states, based on data on active cases and resultant demand for MO. Supply Plan developed by DPIIT consultatively with concerned states, MOHFW. M\/o Steel, MHA, PESO, manufacturers and AIIGMA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInitial order for supply plan was issued on April 15 for 12 high burden states; subsequently, it has been reviewed and revisited as cases have increased, in consultation with stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logistical plan:
Movement of MO from east to other parts of the country planned through a judicious mix of various available modes: By road \u2013 both loaded & empty containers. By rail \u2013 both loaded & empty containers. By Air \u2013 empty containers to supply points.
Road routes such as: Bhilai to MP, Bokaro to Bihar, JH and MP, Rourkela to UP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“UP has placed trackers in the tankers to ensure that tankers are moving. ISO containers are getting added and likely routes where deployment is planned: Jamsedpur-Delhi; Durgapur-Delhi; Jamshedpur-Bhopal; Rourkela-Bhopal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Also:<\/strong> Supreme Court warns govts: Clamping down on appeals for help will be treated as contempt of court<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Deora shared the movement plan from east using air routes by showing some examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was when Justice Chandrachud again asked, this time to Deora, \u201cWhy only 480 MTs have been supplied to Delhi, if they are asking for 700 MTs?\u201d
Ms Deora said, \u201cI had conversation with the Chief Secretary of Delhi, but I didn\u2019t get any request from them to the Central Virtual Control Room for more supply of oxygen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Chandrachud interjected, \u201cThe deficit area for oxygen is Delhi, Karnataka and Andra Pradesh.\u201d
Deora then showed how the Centre has enhanced the capacity of cryogenic tanks, tankers and Medical Oxygen Cylinders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Policy initiatives:
\u201cIssue licences to industrial gas manufactures to manufacture medical oxygen was given. Permitting conversion of cylinders\/ tankers meant for other gases (nitrogen\/ argon\/ LNG) for storage and distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key policy intervention:
\u201cEnhanced production of LMO in steel plants. Enhance availability of oxygen from steel plants due to reduction in safety stock requirements from 3.5 days to 0.5 days. Oxygen units in steel plants have commenced operating 24\u00d77. Tender floated to import 50,000 MT. Augmentation of availability of cylinders.\u201d
Easing Transportation bottlenecks:
\u201cJudicious use of roads\/ rail\/ air.\u201d
Commissioning of PSA plants:
\u201c162 approved \u2013 to be commissioned by June; another 1,000 plus have been approved (MOHFW initiative).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After days of wandering and thousands of deaths, the Centre today finally presented a blueprint, in what looked like a plan on how to acquire and transport oxygen to the regions of the country that need it most, from regions which were surplus. The plan also included setting up of manufacturing units, import and also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[104022,97296,20232],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/IL\/uploads\/2021\/04\/29172623\/images-2021-04-29T172506.463.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}