Thoothukudi, May 13 (UNI) Days after the Tamil Nadu government
granted permission for the Vedanta Group to re-open its Sterlite
copper smelter plant to manufacture oxygen alone for treating corona
patients, the first tanker with 4.80 tonnes of medical-grade oxygen
with 98.6 per cent purity left the plant on Thursday.
The medical-grade oxygen was sent to Tirunelveli Medical College
Hospital (TMCH),” Tuticorin District Collector and chairperson of the
State government-appointed monitoring committee for overseeing
oxygen production in the plant K Senthil Raj said.
Sterlite Copper CEO Pankaj Kumar in a release said 'we are pleased
to announce that the first batch of medical-grade oxygen has been
dispatched from our plant in Thoothukudi.'
'In view of the crisis, our focus was on commencing the production
of liquid oxygen at the earliest which has been implemented immediately.
One of our oxygen plants has commenced production from May 12 and
the first tanker carrying 4.8 tons of liquid oxygen was sent to Tirunelveli',
he added.
'We will be dispatching two oxygen tankers on a daily basis to begin
with and gradually scale this up as we expand production', he added.
After producing five KL liquid oxygen for the first two or three days,
the plant would start generating 35 tonnes of medical-grade liquid
oxygen in the next two to three days, which will serve the needs of
southern districts where several critically-ill COVID-19 patients were
desparately waiting for oxygen in TMCH and other government
hospitals.
The plant was closed since May 2018 after 13 anti-sterlite protestors
were killed in a police firing.
Citing the unprecedented shortage of oxygen for COVID patients across
the country, the company approached the Supreme Court seeking nod to
re-open the plant to manufacture oxygen alone to meet the demand.
The Tamil Nadu government convened an all party meeting and gave
the nod in line with the Apex Court's order and also formed a monitoring
committee to ensure that the company manufactures oxygen alone and
that no other unit was re-opened.
After overhauling the oxygen plant in a short span of time, the company
started producing oxygen from the plant.
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