Vedanta Ltd on Tuesday (20 April) offered its services to provide oxygen from its locked Sterlite Copper premises in Tuticorin to support the Centre and various states, including Tamil Nadu to ensure those who have been hospitalised by Covid-19 receive oxygen supply.
Sterlite has two oxygen plants capable of functioning independently with the capacity to supply around 1,000 tonnes per day (tpd) to various state governments to meet rising demand.
“The two plants have a capacity of 500 tpd each. As and when the permission is granted, we can quickly get one plant ready and start oxygen supplies to the needy states. By that time, the second plant too would be ready to enable us supply 1,000 tpd at this critical time,” sources in Sterlite Copper was quoted saying in a report by TOI.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Sunday (18 April) gave a directive to the industries department to give temporary licences to industrial units which are willing to supply oxygen during the critical time.
This timely decision of directing industrial units to manufacture oxygen taken after reviewing the Covid-19 situation in the state is being seen by many experts as the best possible solution and excellent crises management by CM Edappadi K Palaniswami.
Sterlite Copper, part of the Vedanta Group had actually reached out to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister through separate letters offering services to manufacture oxygen even as the company filed a petition outlining this offer of support in the Supreme Court, in view of the ongoing legal proceedings.
“The Sterlite Copper plant in Tuticorin contains two oxygen plants, with a combined capacity of producing 1,000 tonnes of Oxygen daily. We would like to now offer these facilities for your use, towards ensuring that there is no lack of this vital commodity in the nation, and also to join hands with the commendable efforts of our PM at this critical juncture,” Pankaj Kumar, CEO, Sterlite Copper said in his letter to the Union health minister.
“We would be grateful to be allowed this opportunity to support the nation’s needs. Our staff stand prepared to get these two plants operational in the shortest possible time and begin dispatching oxygen to the critical areas as per your direction,” he said in the letter.
“The oxygen plant is presently lying shut owing to the orders passed by the TNPCB and the state government… This is a humble request to grant us the necessary permission and allow us to run the oxygen plant, which will be instrumental in supporting the state governments in these critical times,” he said in his letter to the CM.
The Sterlite Copper Plant was shutdown in May 2018 after violent protests rocked Thoothukudi that led to the loss of 13 lives.
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