The Andhra Pradesh government has come out with a policy aimed for oxygen manufacturing.

Faced with rising demand for oxygen amid the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Andhra Pradesh government has come out with a policy aimed at nearly doubling the state's oxygen manufacturing capacity.

Accordingly, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday unveiled the AP Industrial Gases and Medical Oxygen Manufacturing Policy 2021-22. The policy has been prepared by the Department of Industries in consultation with the Department of Health and Family Welfare, taking into account the need for medical oxygen at this hour of crisis.

The policy entails setting up around 50 PSA oxygen plants, in captive and non-captive modes, to raise the oxygen manufacturing capacity to 700 MT.

The demand for medical oxygen has grown exponentially during the second wave of the pandemic and is currently estimated at 600-700 MT a day.