Pro-active steps by Union govt during COVID first wave helped to quickly enhance Oxygen production during second wave: Supreme Court audit panel

The Supreme Court appointed Oxygen audit panel has commended the work done by the Central government with respect to Oxygen management for COVID-19..The 12-member National Task Force said in its report that a series of proactive steps were taken by Government of India last year, since March/April 2020, when the first wave of the pandemic hit the country.The action taken during the first wave of the pandemic last year helped to quickly put in place the mechanisms for enhanced production when the second wave hit the country.“During the first wave, GoI had facilitated steps to enhance the availability of liquid oxygen, as well as, storage capacity of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in hospitals and by way of cylinders. The action taken during the first wave of the pandemic last year helped to quickly put in place the mechanisms for enhanced production with the manufacturers in private sector, enhancing the production and utilization of oxygen available with the Steel plants including in their storage, use of industrial cylinders for medical use, use of LMO storage capacities available with hospitals, ISO containers were imported and used for domestic movement based on policy action taken in September last year, etc.” the report said..Among the steps taken by the government during the first wave were:- issue of licences for industrial gas manufacturers to manufacture medical oxygen,- on directions of Empowered Group – 2 (EG2) the manufacturers of liquid oxygen enhanced daily production of liquid oxygen,- new LMO units were started at Modinagar (UP) and Pune (Maharashtra),- liquid oxygen available with the Steel plants was also used for medical oxygen..Further, industrial oxygen cylinders were allowed to be used for medical purposes as per a well-defined SoP, new cryogenic liquid medical oxygen (LMO) tanks were installed in hospitals across the country, manufacturing and procurement of lakhs of oxygen cylinders was facilitated, permission was given for domestic movement of ISO cryogenic containers, a tender was floated for import of liquid oxygen, new PSA plants were sanctioned by both Central and State governments, and manufacturers of the PSA plants were brought onto GEM platform to facilitate orders directly by the State governments, among other interventions taken up..The report noted that the Oxygen demand spiked drastically in April 2021 when the second wave struck.It touched an average of 5,500 metric tonnes (MT) a day by the third week of April 2021, and rapidly increased to a daily average consumption of 7,100 metric tonnes in the fourth week of April 2021.This increased further to the highest consumption level of 8943 MTs a day on May 9 2021, the report further said..The report also gave details of the actions taken by the government key issues related to oxygen management..[Read Report]