According to a senior Tata Sons official, the Tata group will transport 40 supercooled oxygen storage tanks from abroad and construct approximately 400 oxygen generating units for use by hospitals in smaller cities during the pandemic. In addition, the group makes about 5,000 beds available for COVID-care with its various firms joining forces in the battle against the COVID-19’s second wave, according to the official.
To avoid a shortage of support staff for the patients, the group is also reskilling some of its employees, especially within Indian Hotels, which has converted many of its hotels into COVID-care facilities.
“Tata Steel on its own is currently handling a huge volume of oxygen each day. The bottleneck, according to our Tata Steel employees, is in transportation. Special cryogenic containers are needed. It is not available in India. So all that remains is to locate them outside and have them airlifted. We have found nearly 60 such containers and are in the process of bringing them in. About 14 of them have already arrived, with more on the way.” Banmali Agrawala, Tata Sons President Infrastructure, Defence & Aerospace, and Global Corporate Affairs, said. He also said that “We collaborate with our associates, such as Linde, with whom we have a strong relationship.”
Agrawala also praised the government for using Air Force planes to transport some of the cylinders. According to Agrawala, the second wave of COVID-19 is different because of its magnitude and suddenness in striking the region, and the group has described a shortage of oxygen and a delivery challenges for its transportation as one of the main issues to overcome.
“Oxygen continues to be an issue. One is logistics, and the other is on-site oxygen production. We would need local modes and methods of oxygen generation for hospitals as we go into smaller areas, such as tier II, tier III, villages, and so on,” he said. He mentioned that the group has partnered with DRDO to develop oxygen generating units, based on the latter’s design using pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology.
“We’ll make 350 to 400 of the maximum capacity units, and if more are needed, we’ll make more. We’ve already begun working on it. We’re hoping to finish 80-90 of them this month and get them out as soon as possible,” he said, adding that each unit should be able to accommodate a 100-bed facility.
According to the official, the conglomerate’s community companies have banded together to help meet the country’s current challenges as a result of the pandemic.
“We will have the greatest effect as a Tata group when we work together as a team and work progressively, cutting through our organisational lines. Of course, individual businesses continue to operate as usual, but I believe we can collaborate horizontally to have a greater effect and produce more useful outcomes
In terms of facilities, he said Indian Hotels have converted, resulting in the availability of 1,500 beds for COVID-19 patients, while Tata Trusts has added another 1,500 beds through the hospitals, it works with, and Tata Projects has added another 400 vital beds through newly constructed or updated existing hospitals.
