Bhubaneswar: Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) Monday said that the company has planned to set up an oxygen plant at its Paradip fertiliser unit.
The IFFCO took the decision in order to increase the supply of oxygen in the country and meet the requirement of patients affected by Covid-19.
IFFCO, in a letter, stated that the oxygen plants will be set up in its three fertiliser units located in Aonla in Uttar Pradesh, Kalol in Gujarat and Paradip in Odisha.
IFFCO said that the company will ensure supply of oxygen to hospitals treating Covid-19 patients.
“We have already placed an order for setting up one such oxygen plant at Kalol unit, which is expected to be operational in around two weeks. We have also placed an order to set up such plants in Aonla and Paradip,” IFFCO says.
The IFFCO plant at Kalol will have capacity of 200 M3/hour to produce 700 cylinders per day. Each cylinder has a capacity of 46.7 litre with medical grade oxygen of 99.5% purity.
This plant will produce around 33,000 litres of oxygen per day. A total of Rs 7 crore will be invested for the establishment of the plant.
The initiative was highly applauded by DV Sadananda Gowda, the Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilisers.
“Kudos to IFFCO for dedicating their four plants for production of medical oxygen. I request other urea units to kindly follow the suit wherever possible. Government is taking all measures to ramp up production and availability of medical oxygen,” Gowda tweeted.
“I urge other urea cos. to kindly follow the suit of IFFCO & set up oxygen plants in their plant premises wherever possible. This is time to fight the pandemic together & with full strength, he writes.
PNN