Oxygen buffer stocks in 12 Karnataka districts zero; govt says adequate backup available in headquarters

Even as the Karnataka govt made it clear that two oxygen manufacturing plants -- owned one each by Praxair and Air Water India -- will only be producing its full capacity of liquid medical oxygen on May 26, and that 410 metric tonnes of oxygen was arriving from Kuwait, Reliance refinery in Jamnagar and an Oxygen Express on May 25, oxygen buffer stocks in 12 districts were nil on May 24.

This includes districts of Bengaluru Rural, Chikkabalapur, Chikkamagalur, Chitradurga, Gadag, Hassan, Haveri, Kalaburagi, Kodagu, Kolar, Vijayapura and Yadgir. State Nodal Officer for Oxygen Distribution Munish Moudgil said these districts will be supplied from the headquarters in Bengaluru. However, the quantity stored here, if revealed, would make 'powerful people to start pushing to consume the buffer', said Moudgil.

Data obtained by DH showed the State on May 24 (not counting its buffer stock in the headquarters) had a backup supply of a mere 69.98 metric tonnes of oxygen. Dakshina Kannada district had 17.12 metric tonnes, Belagavi had 11.42 metric tonnes, Dharwad 10.05 metric tonnes, Mysuru 7.99 metric tonnes, and Udupi 6.85 metric tonnes, followed by other districts that had a buffer stock ranging from a mere 1.14 to 2.85 metric tonnes.

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On being questioned about districts that show zero buffer stocks, Moudgil told DH, "We have adequate oxygen buffer stock with State headquarters and districts, when taken together. Some districts do not have infrastructure to store oxygen buffer stocks. But for them, we have kept oxygen buffer stocks at neighbouring districts or at the State headquarters. Around 115 MT will be arriving in the morning tomorrow. Another 150 MT arrived today with Praxair."

Sachin Patil, head of Air Water India's South India operations, told DH, "It wasn't a power disruption but a mechanical failure at the plant that caused it to break down on Sunday evening. Our capacity per day is only 90 metric tonnes and in over two days, there was a production disruption of not more than 100 tonnes. The plant has already restarted but will take 12 hours to heat up and production will begin on Tuesday morning. There was no disruption of supply to hospitals or our suppliers as we supplied them with our buffer stock."

Praxair did not respond to queries from DH.

Prathap Reddy, Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, who is in charge of bulk distribution of Liquid Medical Oxygen in the State, told DH, "Both the plants will be fixed today (Monday) but for the plants to come back to normal production levels it will take 24 to 48 hours. We are expecting the production to restart on Wednesday at these two plants. While Praxair's stopped on Saturday evening, Air Water's stopped on Sunday."

Buffer stock

"We have about 200 metric tonnes of oxygen as a buffer in Bengaluru. This is the quantity that was stored and wasn't in circulation, to be supplied on days no supply comes. The Government of India has already been apprised and the Ministry of External Affairs is facilitating supply from overseas. Today is very critical. We are watching oxygen consumption across the state to avoid any mishaps. It is sheer bad luck that both plants have tripped at the same time. These plants are bound to run 24/7. Supplies started getting affected only from Sunday afternoon," Prathap Reddy said.