Prothom Alo
The import of liquid oxygen from India, through Benapole land port in Jashore, has been halted since 21 April.
No more vehicles carrying oxygen have entered the country through this port from that day. This type of oxygen is used in Bangladesh for the treatment of coronavirus patients.
According to the Benapole land port, a total of five importer companies including Linde Bangladesh, Expectra and Pure Oxygen usually bring liquid oxygen from India through Benapole land port.
Sources said the country depends largely on supply from India to meet the growing demands of liquid oxygen in the medical sector amidst the pandemic. Around 30 thousand tonnes of oxygen is imported from India every month using this land port. Recently, the demand skyrocketed to save the lives of Covid-19 patients.
Saiqa Mazed, head of human resources of Linde Group, said, “We imported oxygen from India on 21 April for the last time. The supply has been closed due to the restriction of Indian government on oxygen import.”
Linde Bangladesh and Expectra imported a totaled of 498 tonnes of oxygen from India in the week before 21 April. The price of each tonne of liquid oxygen is USD 165. The crisis has come to the forefront as India is experiencing a massive spike of Covid-19 cases and deaths.
