Diversified conglomerate ITC Ltd will airlift two dozen oxygen cryogenic tankers into India from Asian nations.
The move is expected to help facilitate transport of oxygen from production units to hospitals that are currently grappling with a shortage amid brutal second wave of Covid infections rampaging through the country infecting over 3 lakh people daily.
The company is also “airlifting a large number of oxygen concentrators for distribution”.
ITC Ltd in collaboration with industrial oxygen supplier, Linde India Ltd (the Indian arm of the $27- billion Linde Group) will airfreight these “oxygen cryogenic containers”, each having a 20-tonne capacity.
Sourcing will be done from Hong Kong, Singapore and other Asian ones, say sources.
“To serve the national priority of easing the bottleneck of transporting medical oxygen, and to support the government’s efforts, ITC has tied up with Linde India to airfreight 24 cryogenic ISO containers of 20 tonnes each from Asian countries for use by them to transport medical oxygen across the country,” the company said in a statement on Saturday.
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Shortages in oxygen across different states in India have seen hospitals send out frantic SoS on social media tagging government officials.
Typically, healthcare facilities consume about 15 per cent of oxygen supply, leaving the rest for industrial use. But amid the second wave, nearly 90 per cent of the country’s oxygen supply — 7,500 tonnes daily — is being diverted for medical use. This is nearly three times higher than what was consumed every day at the peak of the first wave in mid-September last year.
ITC, meanwhile, added that the company’s paperboards unit in Bhadrachalam has commenced supply of oxygen to neighbouring areas.
“It will continue to explore other avenues to help address the challenges emerging during these trying times,” the statement further added.