Chennai,  A high-level meeting of health officials and bureaucrats in Chennai has decided to judiciously use the Oxygen in the state as Covid cases surge in Tamil Nadu.

The officials after consultations with experts in production of Oxygen are of the opinion that even if industrial oxygen is used for health purposes, it will take a minimum of three months for converting the machines for producing oxygen required for health from industrial oxygen.

The per day requirement of Oxygen has reached to 350 MT and the state health officials know that with the Covid cases surging ahead, the requirement would be much more than the present production of 400 MT a day.

The meeting concluded that the present production capacity of Oxygen in the state must be utilized to the maximum.

There are around 20 Oxygen production units in the state, however only four units are operational in the state. Inox, Praxair, Sicgil-Sol and TN Oxygen are the major producers.

The state is also trying to utilize the possibility of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd's (CPCL) Oxygen plant to meet up the demand in the immediate future. The Tamil Nadu health department has already had a discussion with CPCL officials on Monday and CPCL could emerge as a supplier of Oxygen in the near future.

The TN health department is also pushing for new production of Oxygen in the days to come and Inox is establishing an Oxygen plant at Hosur with a capacity of 140 MT per day.

Sisgil-Sol is also planning a production unit at Ranipet and the state government has allotted it land for the same and will have a production capacity of 60 MT per day.

Industrial Oxygen will only be available in parts as the industries require Oxygen as also it needs six months to convert the industrial oxygen units to units for producing oxygen for health purposes.