BENGALURU: In yet another move that would help tide over the oxygen shortage in Karnataka, a total of 34,200 kilograms of Zeolite, a key component in production of oxygen, reached the Bengaluru airport from Rome via two Air India cargo flights on Sunday morning.
Airport sources said that they have been cleared by the Air Cargo unit at the airport by afternoon.
According to an airport source, one flight reached at 6.45 am while the second one reached around 8 am. The early flight carried 35 drums of Zeolite while the next one had 22 drums of the mineral. They would be transported to Tata Advanced Systems in Malur, he added.
Three more such consignments are expected at KIA within the next two or three days, the source said. Oxygen production plants which adopt Pressure Swing Adsorption technology utilize Zeolite as it serves as a molecular sieve and adsorbs nitrogen while generating purified oxygen.
An official release by airport operator, Bangalore International Airport Limited, confirmed the consignment by two flights on Sunday morning. "This is the first of many batches of Zeolite that would be imported by the Government of India to generate oxygen. This will give a fillip to oxygen supplies in the country amid the COVID-19 epidemic," it said.
According to a PTI report from New Delhi, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is the charterer for the zeolite consignments. Apart from Rome, Tokyo, Korea and US too are expected to send Zeolite consignments across India.