Two Air India flights, carrying 34,200 kg of zeolite, used in oxygen production plants, arrived at the Bengaluru airport from Rome on Sunday, airport operator BIAL said.
Zeolite is used in oxygen production plants that are based on pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology, and its import would help mitigate the acute shortage of medical oxygen in the country.
India has been hit badly by the deadly and more virulent second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic with hospitals across the country facing an acute shortage of medical oxygen, health workers, vaccines, life-saving medicines, among others.
"Two Air India flights, carrying 34,200 kg of Zeolite from Rome, arrived at the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, on May 16. This is the first of the many batches of Zeolite that would be imported by the government to generate oxygen," Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) said in a statement.
This will give a fillip to oxygen supplies in the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic, BIAL said. The national carrier is going to airlift zeolite minerals for DRDO from multiple locations across the world during the coming weeks.
Seven charter flights have been scheduled between May 15-18 from Rome to Bangalore. This will be followed by eight charter flights from Korea to Bangalore between May 19-22.
(Published 16 May 2021, 11:37 IST)
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