Maruti Suzuki ties up with three firms for production of oxygen generators

NEW DELHI: The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki is collaborating with manufacturers to boost production of oxygen generators in the country.

Maruti has tied up with three small-scale companies — Airox Nigen Equipments, SAM Gas Products and Gaskon Engineers — for producing oxygen generators.

The company on Thursday said that as part of the pact, it has been able to increase the output levels of oxygen generators by over 10x.

“Maruti Suzuki decided to involve itself in scaling up production of oxygen generators by small scale units to help overcome the critical shortage of oxygen. We have, in less than a month, increased output levels by more than 10x,” said Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) India chairman R C Bhargava.

Bhargava said the reason why the company focused on manufacturing and installing oxygen PSA (pressure swing adsorption) generators was because it provided oxygen at significantly lower cost, avoiding the high cost of transportation and reduced consumption of fuel.

“The government and hospitals need to study this option carefully for the future,” he added.

Maruti is telling medium- and big-sized hospitals to install oxygen PSA generators. These generators will not only help with the oxygen shortage but also build efficiency as it will reduce the time taken for transportation and even the losses during the process.

“Since we stepped in, 70 oxygen generator plants are being produced in May; in June, it will be 150 with the partners. The backlog order with these suppliers is 225,” a company spokesperson said during a press conference.

According to the company spokesperson, a plant with oxygen production capacity of one tonne a day or 500 litres a minute roughly costs Rs 60-70 lakh.

Maruti Suzuki said it will donate 20 such plants to Haryana-Delhi-NCR and the remaining are being commercially decided between its partners and buyers.