While Jammu & Kashmir Government has augmented capacity of oxygen production at different hospitals on war footing; Private Industrial Sector is also lending support to Government in its fight against Covid crisis with the production of Oxygen in their industrial Units.One such unit, JK Gases, situated at Old Airport Rangreth, Srinagar has come forward to fight against oxygen scarcity and is assisting the government since the emergence of second Covid wave which has forced public and private sector to mobilize their resources for tackling and mitigating the pandemic effect and save precious lives.According to the Incharge JK Gases, Javid Ahmad the Oxygen Concentration Plant is producing 250 cubic meters of oxygen per day which equals to 1200 cylinders and is one of the largest oxygen plants in J&K.He said that since April 10 the demand for oxygen increased manifold and their Oxygen Concentration Plant has kept pace with the rising demand and has enhanced its production capacity continuously. The said plant is running round the clock to maintain the demand oriented supply to its full potential.
“Before April 10, JK Gases was supplying 400 Cylinders to the hospitals”, Javid Ahmad said. At present hundred percent of the oxygen cylinders are being supplied to the hospitals mostly, SKIMS, SMHS and SKIMS Bemina to help the covid infected patients.Pertinently, J&K Government has been reiterating that there is no shortage of oxygen and is fully catering to demand in all the districts.A senior officer of Industries & Commerce department when contacted said that apart from oxygen plants functioning in hospitals, there are four oxygen manufacturing plants in Kashmir Division having an overall production capacity of 17400 cubic metre which works out to a total production of roughly 2483 oxygen cylinders in 24 hours.The officer said the Industries & Commerce department is closely monitoring the oxygen plants and has deployed Industrial promotion Officers (IPOs) to maintain oversight of the whole production and distribution process, which helped streamline the oxygen distribution to a large extent.