RIL ramps up production of medical oxygen; Ambani oversees relief ops

 RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani is monitoring the scaling up of oxygen production. He has been at Jamnagar since the start of the week to personally oversee the pandemic-related operations.

The production is happening at Reliance's refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in Jamnagar and other facilities, the company said in a statement. The company has halted its other production so as to provide oxygen to COVID-stricken patients.

With a daily capacity of 1000 MT, RIL now accounts for roughly 11 percent of medical-grade oxygen in the country and is providing oxygen to one in ten patients.

The company said that in April, it provided 15,000 MT of medical grade oxygen free of cost, which has helped in treating 1.5 million patients.

“Reliance airlifted 24 ISO containers for transporting oxygen - creating an additional 500 MT of transportation capacity for India. Sincere thanks to ARAMCO, BP, and IAF for their help in sourcing and transportation. More ISO containers are being air freighted over the next few days,” the company said in a statement.

The ramp-up of oxygen supply is the latest in the series of efforts by RIL to help the government in its war against COVID-19.

Earlier this week, responding to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's request, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani directed the company officials to build a 1,000-bed COVID-19 hospital with oxygen in Jamnagar.

The equipment and ancillary facilities will be set up by RIL for the hospital, which will serve the COVID-19 patients from Jamnagar and other adjoining districts in the state's Saurashtra region.

Before that, RIL scaled up its operations to address the growing need of COVID management in Mumbai and said that it will manage 875 beds for COVID patients in the city.

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