New Delhi: India’s biggest private sector company Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), and state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), are diverting oxygen produced at their oil refineries to help India battle a severe second wave of Covid-19 currently pounding the country, particularly Mumbai, due to exponential spike in daily new infections.
RIL is sending 100 metric tons of oxygen to Maharashtra from the company’s Jamnagar-based refineries, Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde was quoted as saying in the media on Thursday. This oxygen stream is meant for RIL’s petroleum coke gasification units and is being diverted to Maharashtra after making it suitable for medical use.
In a related development, media reported, BPCL has an inventory of 20 tons of oxygen at its Kochi refinery in Kerala from where it is supplying gas to bottlers for medical use, a company official said.
Led by Mukesh Ambani, RIL, which operates the world’s biggest petroleum refining complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat, has started supplying oxygen to Maharashtra at no cost, a company official said.
Currently, India is in the grip of a severe second wave of Covid-19 infections. On Wednesday, the country reported more than 200,000 new infections across India, including over 60,000 in Maharashtra alone.
The sudden spike has caught the governments unaware with complaints of shortage of oxygen and hospital beds surfacing. Maharashtra has even imposed a lockdown-like series of restrictions to contain the scourge. Other states have also taken similar strict measures.
(VP)