Abul Khair Group beefs up free oxygen supply
Abul Khair Group is now expanding providing oxygen for free to western districts, having given 80 large cylinders to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital last week.
The business conglomerate produces its own oxygen in its steel plant in Sitalpur of Chattogram's Sitakunda upazila for industrial purposes, such as combustion and cutting.
Three other Chattogram-based business conglomerates -- Mostafa-Hakim Group, GPH Ispat and Master Group -- also provided oxygen earlier and they promised of providing more for free if any hospital requests for the life-saving gas.
With the pandemic's emergence, Abul Khair Group started producing medical grade oxygen since May last year. Medical oxygen is of high purity, requiring tailoring for use in the human body.
It then went on to cater to hospitals and patients in Chattogram, Cox's Bazar, Feni, Cumilla and Sylhet.
Now they are working on meeting the requirements of civil surgeons of Rajshahi, Natore and Narail.
The modus operandi varies from case to case, sometimes with them sending off new cylinders containing oxygen and at other times hospitals and people bringing in theirs at the plant for a refill.
The group's officials say the oxygen was available for free to anyone requiring it, from anywhere around the country.
"We provided over 10,000 cylinders since June last year and refills of over 400 cylinders every day. The daily refills have increased to 550 since last month," said Imrul Kader Bhuiyan, the plant's senior manager.
"If any private or government hospital needs oxygen anywhere in the country, we will happily provide," said Md Abdullah, the plant's chief operational officer.
The plant can produce about 260 tonnes of oxygen per day. That of medical grade has been increased from eight tonnes to 30 tonnes, he said.
"We will gradually increase the medical grade oxygen and reduce industrial grade. Some equipment has already been purchased to increase the supply of medical grade oxygen. These equipment will reach the country within this month," he added.
The group also sells 20 tonnes to 30 tonnes of oxygen to Linde Bangladesh and Spectra Oxygen every day. The revenue generated would go to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, said the officials.
So far, Mostafa-Hakim Group, GPH Ispat and Master Group said to have distributed 2,000 cylinders among 35 private and government hospitals and refilling around 300 cylinders free of cost every day.
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