Tamil Nadu government has been working closely with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to augment the Oxygen production and to divert it to the health facilities across the state.

The Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL) has installed a capacity of 1,400 normal cubic metres per hour (Nm3/hour) of Oxygen.

The CPCL is however producing only 800 Nm3/hour and to increase the production it has to install a compressor. This will take a couple of weeks for the plant to become fully operational.

The CII has already communicated with all the industry bodies across Tamil Nadu to divert the production of Industrial Oxygen to the health facilities.

The CII has already constituted a Covid task force which has been monitoring the industrial units of the state and already established contact with around 30 major hospitals.

Tamil Nadu's Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan told IANS: "We are already in touch with the Industry bodies including CII for Oxygen requirements. Currently, we have the Oxygen required for the state but we are anticipating more requirements and hence are trying to source maximum Oxygen."

Covid -19 active cases in Tamil Nadu has crossed 1 lakh and hence the requirement of Oxygen is around 350MT per day while during last year at the peak of Covid, the requirement was around 260 MT.

In the state, the gap of demand and supply is very near and hence the government is increasing the production of Oxygen as it does not want any shortage if the Covid cases surge again.

Tamil Nadu is producing 400 MT of Oxygen per day but the central government has diverted 80 MT of Oxygen per day to other states and this is a cause of concern.

Union Territory of Puducherry has a production capacity of 120 MT of Oxygen per day and Tamil Nadu is taking 40 MT of Oxygen from Puducherry on a daily basis.

The number of people who require Oxygen has gone up to 3 to 4 times and also the requirement of Oxygen to patients have gone up from 4 to 6 litres to 10- 15 litres.

CII Tamil Nadu Chairperson, S Chandrakumar said, "We are in total support of the government and have already set up a Covid task force for the requirement of Oxygen and we have already associated  with 25 to 30 large hospitals of Tamil Nadu."