“How can I charge for something like this,” remarked Pyare Khan, who has spent nearly ₹1 crore for arranging oxygen tankers to Nagpur, after a call from the Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and from the local administration. Over 205 tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) was received on Sunday alone, which will be used to treat patients in Nagpur and Vidharbha region.
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Khan, whose service has been tweeted about by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Anand Mahindra, Congress’ Digvijay Singh, actor Paresh Rawal, said that to move the cargo to Nagpur, they had to arrange a total of 19 tankers. “The oxygen to Nagpur is being moved from five locations in three States – Bellary (Karnataka); Bhillai and Raipur (Chhattisgarh); Angul and Rourkela (Odisha). By arranging two drivers for each tanker, we managed to cut down on the transportation time. Initially, from Bellary, I paid more than three times the actual charge for arranging two tankers. Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari arranged five tankers from Visakhapatnam, which needed repairing. I got them repaired. Then we sent drivers by cars to those locations; and moved the oxygen to Nagpur, that was used to save lives of people,“ Khan told BusinessLine. He has also donated over 100 oxygen concentrators to the Nagpur Medical College.
‘One of the many’
As many as 19 tankers were arranged– eight from Visakhapatnam, six from Odisha, one from Bellary and four that were already there in Nagpur. Ashmi Road Carriers, Pyare Khan’s company that is into steel transportation, took the responsibility of of moving in the tankers, without charging for these services. Khan said that the local administration have also started funding the transportation.
Khan is one of the many do-gooders who are doing their bit to extend a helping hand for the Covid-hit. Jindal Steel and Power Limited had also not charged for the oxygen that was transported to Delhi in the first Oxygen Express, a train that was offloaded in the middle of the night at Delhi Cantonment by Railway officials, according to company sources.
Meanwhile, as on Tuesday afternoon, Indian Railways had successfully run 49 Oxygen Express Trains, of which 31 carried loaded tankers.
With inputs from Kamal Narang