India's production capacity of liquid oxygen is 8,778 metric tonnes per day: MoS Health Bharati Pravin Pawar

As per records of the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO), based on the daily report submitted by the manufacturers, the country's daily production capacity of Liquid Oxygen is 8,778 metric tonnes per day, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday.

As per the ministry, apart from the above to boost the availability of Medical Oxygen in the country, as many as 1563 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants are established by the Government of India. These include 1225 PSA plants which have been installed and commissioned under the PM CARES Fund in every district of the country.

Additionally, 281 PSA Plants are established by PSUs of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Railways and 57 PSA plants received under Foreign grants.

The Empowered Group constituted by the Government on Emergency Management Plan and Strategy recommended that for calculation of oxygen demand, the required rates of oxygen flow in non-ICU and ICU setting is 10 and 24 litres per minute per day per case, respectively.

A dynamic and transparent framework for allocation of medical oxygen in consultation with States/UTs and all the stakeholders such as relevant Ministries, manufacturers/suppliers of liquid oxygen etc. was prepared. Also, online digital solutions viz.

Oxygen Demand Aggregation system (ODAS) and Oxygen Digital Tracking System (ODTS) have been developed to ascertain the demand for medical oxygen from all medical facilities and to track their transportation.

The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

( With inputs from ANI )