120MT of oxygen to arrive from Kuwait, Centre tells Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Centre has informed the state that120 MT of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) will be shipped from Kuwait.
The ministry of external affairs (MEA) conveyed the message to the ministry of commerce and industry, informed chief secretary V P Joy about the shipment (accessed by TOI).
INS Shardul will bring the shipment comprising six containers each of 20MT capacity at the New Mangalore Port on Sunday. The state has been asked to take immediate measures to collect the consignment as it has to be decanted and returned within five days of arrival.
The Indian Oil Corporation Limited has been entrusted with the task of transportation of the LMO from the port to a destination as directed by the state government. The LMO is being supplied free of cost to the state. The state government has been asked to make arrangements for verifying the purity and concentration of the LMO for medical use.
As of Wednesday, the state needs135.04 MT medical oxygen per day while it receives 239.24 MT. The latest shipment from Kuwait will add to the buffer stock of oxygen in the state.
The state had recently received an increased allocation --from 223 MT to 358 MT-- of LMO from the Centre. As per the revised allocation to the state, it would receive 10 MT from Air Water, Bellary, 25 MT from Linde India, Bellary, 180 MT from Inox Kanjikode, 6 MT from Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited, 30 MT from Linde Jamshedpur, 50 MT from SAIL Rourkela captive plant, 15 MT from Linde St Gobain Tamil Nadu and 42 MT from all state units of micro, small and medium enterprises.
Further, a one-time dispensation of 100 MT was also allocated from SAIL Burnpur, Asansol, West Bengal.
In order to address the shortage of storage facilities for LMO, the government has undertaken an exercise to identify cylinders that have been previously used to store other gases and which can now be converted to store medical oxygen. As many as 11,087 cylinders used for storing Nitrogen, Argon, or industrial Oxygen are being cleaned, disinfected, and converted into medical oxygen cylinders.