Jajpur: The authorities of the state-owned Nilachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) in Kalinganagar Saturday decided to revive the defunct oxygen plant on its premises to meet the rising oxygen demand of Covid patients in the country, a report said.
The move comes a day after Orissa POST published a report about the oxygen plant of the company remaining non-operational for over a year when the country is grappling with an acute shortage of oxygen.
The matter came to the fore after SK Sahoo, manager (HRM) of NINL, issued an order appointing 13 officers and 16 technicians to run the plant.
The news has spread cheers among workers and officials of NINL as they thanked the newspaper for doing the needful. According to the order, Chandramani Das, DGM (power plant) will be in-charge of the oxygen plant. He has to report to Ashok Kumar Panda, general manager of power plant.
Moreover, Sanjay Kumar Rout, AGM of sinter plant, PG Bhgawat, Sarthak Kumar Padhi and Bhaskar Chandra Parida, MGMs CIAT, Rajesh Kumar and Jytoranjan Kar, managers, LDCP, Prasant Kumar Patra, manager CEM, Sunil Nayar, manager of oxygen plant, deputy managers Jagannath Patra, Anil Kumar Pradhan, Pradipta Kumar Ojha, Niladri Sahu and Sudhir Kumar Dash have been asked to report for duty at the oxygen plant. This apart, 16 technicians and operators have also been posted at the oxygen plant.
The above officials have been asked to immediately carry out the order. Notably, NINL had established an oxygen plant on its premises that started functioning in 2012 at an expenditure of Rs 300 crore.
The 418 tonne oxygen plant had entered into an agreement with the government to provide 5 per cent of its oxygen output to hospitals and use the rest in steel manufacturing.
However, the company stopped supplying oxygen to hospitals after closure of the main plant. The oxygen plant became defunct after the main plant was shut down March 30, 2020. The closure of the twin plants dealt a blow to the livelihood of over 4,000 labourers, workers and officials.
The NINL, functioning under the Union Steel Ministry, was established near Daitari in 1984 as a result of a move aimed at establishment of a second steel plant in the state. Later, the state government entered into a partnership with MMTC to run the plant for which land was acquired and the plant started manufacturing in 2000.
As many as 668 families were displaced for the plant while 452 persons got jobs. However, the plant was closed down in March 2020 after Union Minister Prakash Javadekar announced divestment of shares of its six shareholders January 8, 2020.
PNN