Mukesh Ambani flies to Jamnagar to speed up Covid relief work

Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries, has been in Jamnagar to personally supervise the Covid-19 relief work, ongoing at the group’s mega refinery and petrochemicals complex, said people in the know.
Reliance has ramped up capacity to produce 700 tonnes of medical-grade oxygen daily, up from the current 100 tonnes, and is expanding capacity further to touch 1100 tonnes by next week to meet growing demand. RIL's pet coke gasification process produces industrial grade oxygen. Nitrogen has to then be segregated to maje it fit for medical usage.

The oxygen can be transported both through railways and by road.

India has a daily production capacity of at least 7,100 tonnes of oxygen, including for industrial use, which is adequate for now but will fall short if the number of covid cases continues to surge. The delay in reaching oxygen to hospital beds is due to an overburdened distribution network. And with Covid cases overwhelming the available infrastructure, oxygen facilities are overstretched. To address the dearth of cryogenic container to transport the gas, the Indian Air Force air lifted four cryogenic oxygen containers from Linde Singapore for Tata Group on Saturday. Earlier, Defence Ministry airlifted 23 mobile oxygen generation plants from Germany. Officials said each plant will have a capacity to produce 40 litres of oxygen per minute and 2,400 litres per hour.

“Reliance is known for deliver dramatic engineering design and execution in less than estimated timelines. In the face of this unprecedented Covid surge, Ambani has put on hold all aspects of his gigantic global schedule to personally take charge of the efforts,” said an official in the know.

A Reliance Spokesperson did not respond to ET's email seeking comments till prrsstime.

Several corporates Tata Steel, JSW, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, Vedanta have stepped in to help by producing medical grade oxygen at their facilities across the country. While most of these units are located in the east or west coast, transporting them to areas like the National Capital Region has proven to be a challenge.