In two corporate initiatives aimed at boosting the availability of oxygen to cater to the increasing needs of Covid-19 patients, the Paytm Foundation on Tuesday announced that it would set up oxygen plants in 12 to 13 cities, while Mahindra Group rolled out a free “Oxygen on Wheels” (O2W) service to reach the life-saving gas from the manufacturers to the needy hospitals and medical centres.

Paytm Foundation, a philanthropic wing of India's leading digital financial services platform Paytm,  announced that it would set up oxygen plants in  cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Aligarh, Noida and Lucknow. “We will set up Oxygen plants at hospitals. They will cater to the oxygen needs for the patients in the entire hospital,” a Paytm spokesperson said.

Having sourced over 21,000 Oxygen Concentrators, Paytm Foundation said that it would send the life-saving gas to government hospitals, COVID care facilities, private hospitals, nursing homes and Resident Welfare Associations by mid May.

Oxygen plants are devices that produce medical oxygen from ambient air while  supplying simultaneously the gas to multiple beds.

The company has currently raised Rs 10 crore from people across the country under its  #OxygenForIndia initiative and has mirrored the donation amount making it a total contribution of Rs 20 Crore. Paytm is working in conjunction with other prominent organisations including Elevation Capital and the American Indian Foundation.

The donations collected under the initiative will be used to purchase Oxygen Concentrators and oxygen plants, costing between 50 lakh to 1 Crore each.

Paytm is currently between dialogues with the State Governments and hospitals for affirmation and approval to set up these oxygen plants. The oxygen plants will be provided free of cost to Government hospitals by Paytm Foundation.

 “Before economic growth, we need to think about the sustainability of our human forces, the people. While Oxygen Concentrators are good for short term support, we figured out that oxygen plants could provide our healthcare system with larger support. Hence, we decided to direct our donations to build oxygen plants at government hospitals for free,” a Paytm spokesperson .

 In a related development, Mahindra Group has rolled out a “Oxygen on Wheels”  (O2W) initiative to increase the availability of oxygen across the country by linking oxygen producers with the hospitals and medical centres in dire need of it.

The O2W is launched in Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Chakan, Nashik and Nagpur in Maharashtra with over 100 Mahindra vehicles ferrying oxygen, at the present.

Anish Shah, Managing Director & CEO, Mahindra Group said that discussions were ongoing with the civic administration and government departments to extend this free service to other cities as well, most importantly to Delhi, which is facing an acute shortage.

“Given the overwhelming response in the past 48 hours, we are seriously considering extending this initiative to deliver oxygen cylinders directly to patients’ homes,”  Shah said.

Helmed by Mahindra Logistics, a Mahindra Group company that is partnering with the administration and local government bodies on this project, the O2W initiative will involve a large fleet of vehicles and an integrated command and control center

“We are working on creating a seamless and endless chain of supply of lifesaving oxygen and transport it to the hospitals and medical centres in a way that is safe and reliable,” Shah said.

“We are committed to deploying our resources and capabilities innovatively to address the challenge on hand. Oxygen on Wheels meets an urgent need by partnering with local authorities to help save precious lives and reduce the pressure on our healthcare services,” Shah said.

In addition, the Mahendra Group is closely working with the Government to set up oxygen plants and building isolation centres.

M&M’s plants as well as its suppliers are not using oxygen for any industrial activity.

Tech Mahindra supported the Nursing Academy’s staff and students have been helping in various hospitals. Vaccination has also been a key priority for the Group, with emphasis on 100% vaccination for all its associates and their families.