Tata, Linde procure 24 oxygen transport tanks in Germany, await airlifting

On April 21, the Tata Group had stated that it is 'committed to doing is much as possible to strengthen the fight against Covid-19' and to 'mitigate the oxygen crisis'

Tata Group with German company Linde have managed to secure 24 oxygen transport tanks and they will be airlifted to India to increase oxygen transport capacity from production sites to Covid-19 hospitals.

The German Embassy in India on a social media platform stated: "In this spirit, the private German company Linde together with Tata have managed to secure 24 oxygen transport tanks that will be airlifted to India in order to increase transport capacity from production sites to Covid-19 hotspots."

On April 21, the Tata Group on social media platforms stated that it is "committed to doing as much as possible to strengthen the fight against Covid-19" and to "mitigate the oxygen crisis".

The group officials said a taskforce is specially looking and collating medical requirements and requests coming in to arrange resources to meet the same.

Quarantine centres and hospital beds are the two other main focus areas where resources are being arranged by the group.

The central government has assigned Indian Air Force to airlift oxygen containers and equipment from Germany.

India is facing oxygen transportation due to an acute deficiency of containers to carry the life-saving material. The government is in talks with all the stakeholders.

As second wave of Covid-19 hit India, the IAF was roped by the Centre to airlift oxygen cylinders, regulators, and essential medicines as the national capital region faced shortage of oxygen cylinders and medicines.

Earlier this week, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh directed all the defence establishments to set up more Covid-19 hospitals, use emergency powers and to bring in retired personnel to tackle the crisis.

A roadmap on how military infrastructure can be used to ramp up the fight against Covid-19 was also discussed in a Covid preparedness review meeting chaired by the minister.

The minister also suggested the utilisation of the services of vaccinated retired armed forces personnel to assist the civil administration and state governments to deal with the current situation.