Nagpur: Billionaire spends Rs 85 lakh to provide oxygen to COVID hospitals

Self-made billionaire Pyare Khan from Nagpur, Maharashtra has spent Rs 85 lakh to ensure 400 metric tonnes of medical liquid oxygen reaches government hospitals in and around Nagpur at a time when the whole country is reeling under a shortage of oxygen and a surge in Covid-19 infections.

Pyare Khan, a leading transporter, has been providing oxygen to hospitals in and around Nagpur, saving the lives of several Covid-19 patients. He has provided 32 tonnes of oxygen till now.

The administration has promised to pay him for oxygen transportation, but Pyare Khan has refused it saying the expenditure was his duty-bound ‘zakat’ during the holy month of Ramzan. He says the expenditure on oxygen is his service to humanity in the time of crisis.

Pyare Khan started by selling oranges outside Nagpur railway station in 1995. Today, Pyare Khan, son of a small grocer from the slums of Tajbagh, owns a company worth Rs 400 crore.

Pyare Khan’s initiative includes 116 oxygen concentrators, which he aims to donate to AIIMS, Government Medical College and Hospital and Indira Gandhi Government Medical College & Hospital in Nagpur.

Pyare Khan paid three times more to hire two cryogenic gas tankers from Bengaluru. As the demand for oxygen soared amid the increasing death rate in Nagpur, Pyare Khan paid Rs 14 lakh more than the market price for the tankers.

He said getting tankers was the biggest challenge. Tankers are being arranged from places like Raipur, Rourkela and Bhilai to get them filled with oxygen. Pyare Khan employs more than 1,200 people in his Ashmi Road Carriers Private Limited. India Today