Saudi Arabia has extended a helping hand to India as the country is facing an acute oxygen shortage due to recent mounting coronavirus cases. The Kingdom has shipped 80 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen and four ISO cryogenic tanks in collaboration with Adani Group and MS Linde Group.
Along with posting several pictures of containers carrying oxygen cylinders set up for shipment, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh tweeted, "Embassy of India is proud to partner with Adani group and M/s Linde in shipping much needed 80MT liquid oxygen to India. Our heartfelt thanks to Ministry of Health Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for all their help, support and cooperation."
The first shipment sent from Dammam port is expected to arrive at Mundra port in Gujarat.
"In addition to ISO cryogenic tanks, we are also securing from Linde Saudi Arabia another 5,000 medical-grade oxygen cylinders. These too will be quickly sent to India. I am thankful to our Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Dr Ausaf Sayeed for assisting us in this regard," tweeted Adani Group chief Gautam Adani, adding that their teams are arranging additional oxygen supplies for speedy distribution in Gujarat.
Indian Air Force also began airlifting four cryogenic tanks from Singapore to meet the growing demand for oxygen amidst a record number of covid infections being reported every day. The Union Health Ministry of India has recorded 3,49,391 new Covid-19 cases and 2,767 deaths in the last 24 hours as of Sunday.