All-out efforts are being taken to tap oxygen from all possible sources so as to stabilise the supply till Sterlite Copper Plant resumes production, said the Minister for Industries, Thangam Thennarasu.
Talking to reporters, he said that Thoothukudi district administration was closely involved in rectifying at the earliest the snag at the Sterlite plant.
“We hope that oxygen production will resume in Sterlite plant in the next three days,” the Minister said.
In the meantime, 40 MT of oxygen was being brought from JSW Steel Plant. All those already involved in production of oxygen have been asked to step up the quantum of supply to Tamil Nadu, he added.
Four cryogenic containers, with a capacity of 20 MT each, from Netherlands was being brought from Nizampur. Similarly, 40 MT of oxygen was likely to reach the State from Rourkela by Saturday night or Sunday morning and another 40 MT will come from Jamshedpur, Mr. Thennarasu said.
Oxygen from all these sources would be distributed across the State so that not a single patient was affected by shortage of oxygen, he said.
The Minister said that even resources of Indian Air Force was being used to fly the empty containers back to different sources for refilling. Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation was taking efforts to procure 12 containers from China.
Meanwhile, 5,000 oxygen concentrators were being procured by Confederation of Indian Industry and other voluntary organisation to meet the oxygen demand.
Efforts were also being taken to revive dysfunctional units that used to produce oxygen, he added.
