Steel plants supplying medical oxygen for Covid-19 treatment: Govt

Stepping up fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, steel companies are supplying medical oxygen from their plants to various hospitals across the country, the steel ministry said on Wednesday.

The ministry recently made operational a portal wherein plant-wise information regarding availability of oxygen and daily supply by various plants and states to which such supplies have been made is provided.

According to a ministry statement, the states which have received oxygen from the steel plants are Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

However, the ministry did not provide names of plants and companies that are engaged in work of supplying oxygen.

Earlier in a series of tweets on Tuesday, Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed about a meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on enhancing oxygen supply in the country, and role steel plants are playing in making oxygen available at hospitals for treatment.

Pradhan said that 4,329 tonnes of medical oxygen has been supplied by the steel plants in last four days with plan to meet future demand.

"Ministry of Steel @SteelMinIndia is collaborating with DPIIT @DIPPGOI and Ministry of Health @MoHFW_INDIA to provide medical oxygen to various hospitals, pan India, who have stressed out want of oxygen supply for COVID patients," he said one of his tweets.