Steel manufacturers deserve a mention for their sterling efforts to help the ailing healthcare infrastructure in the country meet its oxygen requirements amidst a pan India oxygen emergency crisis in the aftermath of the second wave of Covid-19. For instance, led by Chairman Naveen Jindal, steel manufacturer Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. over the month diverted huge reserves of oxygen to several parts of the country. The company is claimed to have made over 500-tonnes of oxygen available with a daily estimate of 100-tonne liquid medical oxygen supplied from oxygen plants like six MTPA integrated steel plant in Angul, Odisha. The facility is known to develop special grade plates for critical applications including automotive, earthmovers and bulletproof vehicles. In another instance, Steel Authority of India (SAIL), amongst the country’s largest domestic steel producers, ramped up its reserves of liquid medical oxygen too. The manufacturer is known to have increased its supply of liquid medical oxygen from its integrated steel plants located in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), Rourkela (Odisha), Bokaro (Jharkhand), Durgapur and Burnpur (West Bengal) by 500 metric tonnes by the second week of April. By April 2021 alone, SAIL supplied 17,500 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen to 15 states across the country.
