Bengaluru, Apr 24 (IANS): In a bid to overcome shortage of oxygen, Karnataka is likely to subsidise power supply to all oxygen producing units in the state, a senior official said.

A senior official told IANS the state government was in talks with several oxygen producing units across the state and many of these units were demanding power subsidy to augment their production.

Karnataka home minister Basavaraj Bommai told reporters that the state government was going to produce additional power using its coal-fired thermal power plants based in Yadlapur and Yeramaurs in Raichuru district and Kudatini in Ballari district.

He added that Karnataka's medical oxygen requirement had nearly doubled compared to last year's requirement during the pandemic. "Our maximum oxygen requirement stood anywhere between 275 to 320 ton during last year, which was our peak demand in recent times. When the second wave of Covid raised its head, the oxygen producing units were prepared to produce this much but all of a sudden the quantity nearly doubled with requirement going upto 500 tones within days, that is where we fell short of oxygen to some extent," he explained.

In response to a question, he said that the number of cases in Bengaluru has crossed 15000 this time when during the peak of the pandemic last year it did not cross 5000 cases. "We did not anticipate this kind of jump in cases, therefore, our plans went haywire in many ways," he said.

The health minister told reporters in a separate press conference that after its plans went haywire in procuring oxygen, the health experts have assessed the requirement and as of now the state's total requirement stands anywhere between 1400 to 1500 ton of oxygen if the same trend of positive cases continues. "We have already requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to supply 1472 ton of oxygen by this month end," he added.