Leaders highlight Trichy BHEL’s oxygen production capabilities !

Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam’s Founder Vijayakanth stressed the central and Tamil Nadu state government to re-open the oxygen production units in the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) premises in Trichy, on Thursday.

Throughout the week, leaders from the opposition have been demanding the State Government to reopen the facility, provide maintenance support to produce oxygen that is needed much in fighting this second wave of covid-19.

Founder and General Secretary of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Vaiko made an appeal to the Tamil Nadu Government on Wednesday to make use of Trichy BHEL to meet the oxygen requirements of the State.

Vaiko highlighted BHEL,Trichy’s oxygen production capabilities in his letter briefly, and stated that till 2016, it was producing and supplying oxygen to BHEL Hospital in the city. Following management issues, the oxygen production unit was left unattended from 2016 till date. He stressed the Tamil Nadu Government to put the unit to good use.

Considering the grave need for oxygen, Tamil Nadu government took the decision to utilize the oxygen production capabilities of Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper in Tuticorin recently.

“We wish to state that Sterlite Copper operates an Oxygen Plant of capacity 1050 MT per day, within the main copper smelter unit. One Oxygen Plant of 500 TPD can be operated to meet the critical demand of oxygen in this hour of peril,” said the company’s CEO, Pankaj Kumar in a letter to Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, recently. 

Consider fixing and re-opening BHEL-Trichy’s  Oxygen Plant:

As the need for oxygen can increase anytime in this period of crisis, several politicians have remarked that the Tamil Nadu Government should tap on the oxygen production potential of BHEL in Trichy. DMK ‘s Rajya Sabha member Trichy Siva on Monday wrote to Union minister for heavy industries & public enterprises Prakash Javedekhar regarding the same.

In his letter, Siva wrote “The MHD Centre at BHEL unit situated at Tiruchirapalli, my hometown, is equipped with three oxygen plants each with a production capacity of 140 metric cube/hour but are shut down since 2003.”

“It is suggested by technicians that the plants can be brought back to operation after undertaking maintenance procedures including compressor overhauling, air separation unit copper vessels treatment process, freons unit service, cooling water pump service, storage vessels provisions and all valves maintenance,” Siva said in his letter.

“The utilization of the expertise of the technicians, who have worked earlier in these units, could ensure that the units coming into operation within 15-20 days and oxygen produced thereby would help save the lives of thousands of patients affected by Covid-19, who are in dire need of oxygen,” Siva said.

Right now, the private companies that supply oxygen to the State include Inox Air Products, Praxair India, and JSW Steels. Opening BHEL’s Trichy Unit could help the State in the emergency period.