Every day, forty metric tonnes of liquid oxygen produced by the Oxygen Plant will be exported to Assam (Image: AP)
Bhutan has said it will supply liquid oxygen to India from a new plant being set up in the country.
"Every day, forty metric tonnes of liquid oxygen produced by the Oxygen Plant will be exported to Assam using cryogenic tankers," said a statement from Indian Embassy in Bhutan.
Track this LIVE blog for latest updates on coronavirus pandemic
The oxygen will come from the plant being set up at Motanga Industrial Estate. It has a domestic investment of 51 percent by Bhutan-based SD Cryogenics and 49 percent by Assam's Meghalaya Oxygen Pvt. Ltd, the statement said.
"The provision of oxygen by Bhutan will augment India’s efforts to win the fight against COVID-19 and save precious lives. This is a practical manifestation of the uniquely close and friendly ties between India and Bhutan," the release added.
India is reeling under a devastating wave of coronavirus infections and hospitals across the country are facing acute shortage of beds, medical oxygen and other supplies due to rising COVID-19 cases.
Many countries, including the US, Germany, France, Britain, Australia, Singapore, Israel and several others as well as the World Health Organisation and the European Union, have already announced urgent medical assistance to India to help it deal with the situation.
Meanwhile, the Centre has also imported 20 cryogenic tankers of 10 MT and 20 MT capacity and allocated them to states to address the shortage of oxygen tankers.
"As mapping of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) from manufacturing plants to different states is a dynamic process and transportation of medical oxygen through cryogenic tankers is becoming a bottleneck in making available LMO from the eastern part of the country to other parts, 20 cryogenic ISO containers of capacity 20 MT and 10 MT have been imported to augment the transportation of oxygen," the Union Health Ministry said.