Arifur Rahman Rabby
Liquid oxygen supply from India through Benapole land port in Jashore remains suspended from April 21.
Oxygen demand has skyrocketed in India due to record number of deaths and infections of Covid-19 pandemic. For this reason, the medical oxygen is not coming from the neighbouring country, said officials concerned.
Benapole land port’s Director (acting) Abdul Jalil told The Business Post that the 97 metric tonnes of oxygen was imported from India on April 21. Since then, no oxygen was supplies to the Bangladesh through this land port.
Indian coronavirus cases on Monday crossed 17 million mark since the start of the pandemic, as the country battles a second wave of infections with record numbers of fresh cases and deaths for the fifth consecutive day.
In the last 24 hours, India logged 352,991 new cases and 2,812 deaths— the highest number recorded so far, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.
Several importers, including Linde Bangladesh, Spectra Oxygen and Islam Oxygen companies, regularly import liquid oxygen from India through Benapole land port.
The oxygen supply enters Bangladesh through the land ports of Petrapole in West Bengal and Benapole in Bangladesh, they said.
Saiqa Mazed, Linde Bangladesh’s general manager of human resources, an oxygen importer, told The Business Post that the last time they imported oxygen from India was on April 21. Due to the restrictions imposed by the Indian government, no more oxygen is coming from India.
Industry insiders said, a large part of the demand for medical oxygen is imported from India.
Several thousand metric tonnes of oxygen are imported from India every month through Benapole land port alone. The demand for oxygen has recently increased to save the lives of patients infected with coronavirus.
