Raise medical oxygen allocation by 200 metric tonnes: Maharashtra govt to Centre

The Maharashtra government has asked the Centre to enhance the present allocation of liquid medical oxygen LMO to the state by at least 200 metric tonnes MT for better management of the demand for the lifesaving gasIn a letter addressed to Union cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba on May 3 Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte also demanded that 10 LMO tankers be allocated to the state to enable lifting of the allocated oxygen quotaThe state government has requested that the supply from Jamnagar in Gujarat be increased to 225 MT per day from the current 125 MT per day and from Bhilai to 230 MT per day from the current 130 MTThese geographically close locations will reduce the turnaround time of oxygen tankers which are limited in numbers This will also enhance our daily lifting and better demand management Kunte statedThe chief secretary said of the 663758 Covid19 active cases in Maharashtra 78884 patients were on medical oxygen including 24787 in the ICUs of hospitalsKunte also said 16 districts Palghar Ratnagiri Sindhudurg Satara Sangli Kolhapur Solapur Nandurbar Beed Parbhani Hingoli Amravati Buldhana Wardha Gadchiroli and Chandrapur are showing continuous growth in coronavirus positive cases and the oxygen requirement is on the riseConsidering the rise in the demand for medical oxygen the present allocation to the state can be enhanced by at least 200 MT This allocation may be raised at the locations convenient to Maharashtra Kunte addedHe also urged the Union government to allocate at least 10 LMO tankers to Maharashtra to enable lifting of the allocated oxygen quota from the steel plant located at Angul Odisha via Ro Ro Rollon roll off serviceAs of Monday the overall Covid19 caseload in Maharashtra stood at 4771022 while the death toll reached 70851 the state health department had saidGiven the huge rise in cases Maharashtra has been battling the shortage of medical oxygen in many hospitalsIn a bid to tide over the shortage crisis the state government has initiated various measures including setting up of the Pressure Swing Adsorption PSA medical oxygen generation plantsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever