Incentives for industrialists to set up oxygen plants: Jagadish Shettar

BENGALURU: To increase the number of oxygen producing plants in the state, the industries department officials have been asked to plan attractive incentives for industrialists to set up such units, Minister in charge of oxygen production and supply and Industries Jagdish Shettar said on Wednesday.After holding a meeting with senior officials, he said details about the incentives will be revealed once the plan is ready.

Of 1,200 MT of oxygen the state gets daily, 830 MT is the allocation from within the state from six main producers, 60 from MSME PSA plant authorised by the Centre and 310 MT is brought from other states — 240 MT from Maharashtra and 70 MT from Odisha, he said.Efforts are on to revive defunct oxygen plants and to leverage Karnataka Power Corporation Limited’s oxygen generation capacity at Yelahanka, Raichur and Bidar plants, he added. 

The Raichur Deputy Commissioner has been directed to hand over an oxygen unit located in Yeramus to a private company to start oxygen production, he said.Shettar instructed officials to increase the oxygen buffer stock in each district by 20 MT to tackle emergencies.He said the distribution of oxygen is based on active cases in respective districts and they receive information on the amount of oxygen being sent to hospitals each day. In the last five days, the state received 889.93 MT, 855.21 MT, 1062.71MT, 899.22 MT and 728.36 MT, respectively from the Centre.

He further added that 150 MT of liquid oxygen reached Mangalore port with Centre’s cooperation. “The state’s oxygen status is improving with the help of the Centre, which is transporting it through trains. Four more tankers are expected to arrive from Kalinga, Odisha on Saturday. We have started operation of two 500 litre per minute oxygen generator plant at KGF and Yadgir,” he said.