BMC write to Centre on daily oxygen needs

Mumbai: BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal wrote a letter to the office of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goel.  Details of daily oxygen consumption in Mumbai were given.  The Government of Maharashtra and BMC wrote two separate letters to the Center highlighting their daily oxygen demand.  State Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunde requested the state to increase Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) by at least 200 metric tonnes. 

BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal wrote to the Piyush office that the letters were written to ensure that the allocation to Maharashtra and Mumbai would not be reduced in view of the increasing allocation to Delhi, where oxygen shortages are exacerbated.  The city has an active case load of 57,342.   There is no shortage,”Chahal said. Chahal said they created the protocol to limit consumption after BMC was forced to evacuate 168 patients from six hospitals on April 18 due to oxygen shortages. 

A letter was still written to the Center to ensure a steady supply.  3, there are currently 6,63,758 cases in the state, Kunte said.  Of these, 78,884 patients had medical oxygen, of which 24,787 were in the ICU.  Palghar, Ratnagiri, Indudurg, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Solapur, Nandurbar, Beed, Parbhani, Hingoli, Amravati, Buldana, Wardha, Gaddiroli and Chandrapur are the 16 districts which are registering growth in active cases and oxygen requirement.

However, in view of this situation, I request you to increase the present allocation of the State to at least 200 MT,”Kunte wrote. He suggested that allocations should be increased from convenient places for easy transportation or that they should remain only on paper.  This allocation can be increased from places convenient to the State.  

Otherwise, the amount already sanctioned from RNL in Visakhapatnam and the Jindal Steel plant in Angul, Odisha will remain on paper, ”he said. My request is to allocate from the existing 125 MT to 225 MT per day from Jamnagar in Gujarat.  Similarly, the allocation from Bhila can be increased from the current 130 MT to 230 MT. These locations, which are geographically close together, will reduce the operating time of oxygen tankers, which are limited in number, Kunde added.