Thoothukudi, May 20 (UNI) The second consignment of
tanker containing 6.34 MT of 96.3 per cent purity medical
oxygen has been dispatched to Thoothukudi Government
Hospital to meet the immediate needs of the treatment of
COVID patients from Vedanta's Sterlite Copper Smelter
plant here last evening.
After a technical glitch halted oxygen production in the unit
on May 14, the snag was rectified and the production of
medical oxygen resumed at the plant yesterday morning.
A Vedanta release said a tanker containing 6.34 MT of
oxygen was sent to Thoothukudi government hospital to
meet the immediate needs of the district.
'As per instructions of the nodal agency, 6 MT of oxygen
will also be sent to the Kanyakumari Government Hospital
and 5 MT to the Tirunelveli Government Hospital', it said.
'We reiterate our gratitude to the local administration for
aiding the quick recommencement of our oxygen operations',
it said.
Yesterday the Vedanta group restarted oxygen production at
its Sterlite plant after the technical glitch, which had disrupted
the generation, has been rectified.
In an update, the company said 'We are glad to share that the
disruption in the oxygen plant has been rectified and have now
restarted production.'
'The oxygen generated is being stored at our onsite facilities
and will be distributed as per the directions of the Tamil Nadu
government and concerned nodal officers', it said.
After the technical glitch was noticed, experts from the Indian
Space Research Organisation’s Propulsion Research Complex
(IPRC) came to the plant on request from Thoothukudi District
Collector K.Senthil Raj to help the company's technicians in
rectifying the glitch.
Now that the technical issues in the cold box and the checking
of allied units had been completed, the plant is ready for oxygen
generation, Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu had said
a couple of days back.
After completion of all the checks, the company has restarted
oxygen production yesterday and it was sent to Thoothukudi
Government hospital.
The snag occurred on May 14 a day after the Group transported
its first consignment of 4.80 tonnes of medical grade oxygen, with
98.6 percent purity, from its Thoothukudi plant to Tirunelveli.
Days after the Tamil Nadu government granted permission for the
Vedanta Group to re-open its Sterlite copper smelter plant to
manufacture oxygen alone, the company started producing liquid
oxygen from May 12 and the first batch was sent to Tirunelveli
on May 13.
'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.
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 had 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. But it suffered
a technical glitch leading to disruption, which was subsequently
rectified and oxygen generation was re-started from yesterday.
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