SAIL says it's enhancing daily oxygen supply limit to 1,100 metric tonne

State-owned SAIL on Tuesday said it has enhanced its daily limit of oxygen supply to over 1,100 metric tonne (MT)

Steel plants are supplying liquid medical oxygen (LMO) to hospitals across the country for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

"The daily delivery of LMO from its integrated steel plants has been increased from a level of about 500 MT in the 2nd week of April to more than 1100 MT/a day currently," Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) said in a statement.

The country's largest steelmaker SAIL has five integrated steel plants located at Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, Rourkela in Odisha, Bokaro in Jharkhand, Durgapur and Burnpur in West Bengal.

According to the statement, the company has so far supplied around 50,000 MT of LMO to health facilities in different parts of the country through rail and roads.

The production and delivery of LMO are taking place 24x7 at all SAIL plants. In April alone, the company delivered over 17,500 MT LMO to 15 states, it said.

In addition to the supply of LMO, SAIL is also going to set up additional 2,500 hospital beds outside its current medical facilities with the support of gaseous oxygen brought by dedicated gas pipelines from the plants.

"These beds will use gaseous oxygen directly as an additional source of oxygen as the demand for LMO is currently high," it said.