Bengaluru: As a nation of 138 crore people gasps for breath, steel companies have stepped up their services as they have supplied 4686 MT of life-saving Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO). 

A statement from the steel ministry adds that it included 1193 MT by SAIL, 180 MT by RINL, 1425 MT by TATA group, 1300 by JSW, and rest by other steel companies in the public and private sector. The total production of Liquid Medical Oxygen in the country has risen to almost 9500 MT/day, showing the capacity utilization of about 130% of the installed capacity. Steel plants are contributing nearly half on the national production of LMO.

Steel plants have been able to enhance the supply of LMO by taking various initiatives, which include reduction in the production of Nitrogen and Argon and only producing LMO in most plants. They are normally required to keep 3.5 days of safety stock of LMO in their storage tanks which is vaporized and used in case some problem develops in the oxygen plants. Through continuous engagement with the steel producers by the ministry of steel, the safety stock has been reduced to 0.5 days because of which LMO supply had significantly increased.

It is not just about oxygen supplies. The companies are also setting up hospitals with 8,100 beds (AMNS - Hazira, JSW - Dolvi&Vijayanagar, Jindal – Hisar, HZL – Udaipur, SAIL – Rourkela, Bhilai, Bokaro, Durgapur, Burnpur, RINL – Vizag, TATA – Kalinganagar, JSR, Angul ) in the vicinity of plants with gaseous oxygen.

The steel companies are also inoculating their citizens. 
Nitrogen plants to produce oxygen: 

With oxygen availability getting scarce, the Union government had instructed Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which has comprehensive database of industrial units, to identify the industries having spare nitrogen plants and explore the feasibility of converting of existing Nitrogen plants to produce oxygen.