UP medical oxygen quota hiked to 850 tonnes

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Apr 28, 2021

Amid a steep rise in demand for medical oxygen for Covid-19 patients in Uttar Pradesh, the oxygen allocated quota of the state has been increased to 850 tonnes.

Over the past 24 hours, a record supply of nearly 600 tonnes of oxygen has been made across the state, according to UP additional chief secretary, home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi.

He claimed UP was the first state to be supplied with medical oxygen by the railroad network.

“To overcome the shortage of oxygen in UP, we have made arrangements for bringing oxygen from oxygen plants in other states including Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand. This process is being monitored online for transparency,” he informed.

Besides, the state is using the aerial route to transport vacant oxygen tankers for refilling to ensure adequate availability of the commodity in UP. The state has also created a ‘green corridor’ starting at the state borders for timely transportation of the oxygen containers to the predetermined destination within the state.

So far, 84 tankers had been pressed into service and 6 trains had ferried the commodity. The Centre has also provided 5 new tankers of 70 tonnes capacity to the state.

While oxygen has arrived from Bokaro, Jharkhand, the same has also been transported via the aerial route to Ghaziabad and Agra, Awasthi added.

The Yogi Adityanath government has roped in premier educational institutions, including Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur; Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow; and IIT-Banaras Hindu University (BHU) etc, for conducting oxygen audit to check pilferage of the commodity.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is helping the UP government in setting up 10 oxygen plants across the state.