Maharashtra: Shortage of special tankers to transport oxygen a worry

PUNE: A dearth of cryogenic tankers in Maharashtra is putting a strain on the supply of liquid oxygen to hospitals treating Covid-19 patients. Before the pandemic, fewer than 200 cryogenic tankers were adequate to meet the state’s oxygen requirements.
The All India Industrial Gases Manufacturers’ Association said there was no shortage of oxygen, but the supply chain was hit due to the limited number of tankers.
Sources said Pune district has around 36 cryogenic tankers supplying liquid oxygen to hospitals and refillers. A major manufacturer in the state has 68 of Maharashtra’s total tankers.
Shortage of special tankers to transport liquid O2 a concern
Sadashiv Survase, regional joint director (directorate of industries, Pune division), said, “All manufacturing plants are working at 90-95% of their liquid oxygen production capacity. All refillers are also working continuously.”
Survase said, “There are two major manufacturing plants in Pune district producing about 230 tonnes of liquid oxygen per day. Besides Pune, there are four major plants in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region — at Raigad, Alibaug, Taloja and Murbad. All these together account for a capacity of producing more than 1,000 tonnes of liquid oxygen per day. So, the demand for about 290-300 tonnes from hospitals in Pune district can be met by these plants.”
Survase said the main problem in the oxygen supply chain was tanker rotation because of sudden increase in demand. For instance, if a company had scheduled a particular number of tankers for various trips for an eight-day period, it may now have to arrange an equal number of tankers for a twoday period.
“Since March, at least 14 argon and nitrogen tankers in Maharashtra have been converted into tankers to carry liquid oxygen,” he said.
Survase said a control room has been set up at the state level to manage districtwise scheduling of oxygen supplies. “This has helped smoothen the operations in the last 4-5 days, with no complaints from hospitals on oxygen supply,” he said.
A source in the association said that while supplies to Mumbai and Pune were still being catered to, dispatches to locations such as Sangli, Nanded, Hingoli, Kolhapur, Miraj, Nagpur and other regions of Vidarbha had become a problem.
This is because most source plants are located in the Mumbai and Pune regions and the tankers have to cover a long distance to reach faraway places.