MEIL Sends 3 Cryogenic Oxygen Tankers to Andhra Pradesh

Vijayawada: MEIL which is bridging the gap between the supply and demand for medical oxygen in the fight against the pandemic by supplying free oxygen to hospitals, has now importing cryogenic oxygen tanks and delivering free to the state governments for present and future medical use. 

As part of this MEIL imported 3 cryogenic oxygen tanks from Singapore and handed over to AP government. Each cryogenic tank could supply 1.40 crore litres of medical oxygen, and 4.20 crore litres from 3 tanks. On Tuesday, a Defence special flight from Singapore landed with tankers at 6 PM at Pangarh Air Force Station in West Bengal. In special vehicles tanks where moved to Durgapur Steel Factory, which is 35 KMs far from Air Force station for filling tanks with oxygen. As it was agreed oxygen produced in that steel plant is allocated to our state. After finishing the Oxygen filling these 3 tanks will be transported in the rail route, and will reach Andhra Pradesh by Wednesday night or Thursday morning said P. Rajesh Reddy, MEIL Vice President. 

Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) imported 11 cryogenic tanks from Bangkok (Thailand) and handed over to Telangana State free of cost. The tanks that will help to increase supply of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) to hospitals and meet the shortage of medical oxygen in hospitals to fight against Covid. With cooperation and coordination with Central and State Governments MEIL is importing tankers ahead of schedule.

3 tankers delivered to Andhra Pradesh will be able to supply 4.20 crore litres of oxygen. These cryogenic tankers are utilized by the state government to suit their needs. They bring liquid medical oxygen from the oxygen production centres allotted to our state and deliver it directly to the hospitals. At the same time these tankers are also used to supply directly to hospitals depending on their needs.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, Health Minister Alla Nani, Govt. Chief Secretary Adityanath Das and a committee with other government officials are supervising the whole operation. Keeping in view of present and further requirements of oxygen in Andhra Pradesh state MEIL is importing cryogenic tankers from Singapore.

The country has enough Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) production to meet the needs in medical services, but due to the non-availability of required number of cryogenic tankers and lack of transport facilities, there is a gap formed to transfer oxygen from production plant to hospitals. It is also not possible to manufacture these tanks immediately and also importing is also not that easy. To manufacture one cryogenic tanker it takes nearly 3 months. To ease the situation MEIL management has taken special care for importing tankers.

MEIL is continuously producing medical oxygen in its Bollaram plant. It is supplying oxygen for free to public and private hospitals in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and adjacent states.  Private and government hospitals are filling free cylinders with oxygen if needed. It is offered exclusively for the therapeutic needs of covid patients. 

Each cylinder's capacity is 7000 litres. On an average MEIL has supplied nearly 400 cylinders per day to at least 17 hospitals. Till now from May 9th to 31st, MEIL has supplied more than 56 thousand metric tons of liquid medical oxygen (LMO). MEIL has set up a special team to monitor supply of free oxygen and the team is working round the clock to meet the emergency services.