Aurangabad, Jun 4 (PTI) Industrial associations in the city have contributed medical equipment worth Rs 9 crore to support COVID-19 relief efforts.

In a joint press conference on Thursday industrial associations like CII, MASSIA, CMIA and Aurangabad First said that "companies have spent nearly Rs 9 crore by contributing among themselves and have supplied medical equipment in the crucial phase of first and second wave of the pandemic."

The associations have contributed an oxygen generation plant at the government medical college and hospital at a cost of nearly Rs 1.4 crore. They have also provided 43 ventilators and have imported 20 of them from France and 12 from the USA, they said.

As many as 23 companies have raised this fund in a period of eight days. 140 oxygen concentrators are supplied across Marathwada including the hilly area of Kinvat and Hemalkasa (Vidarbha), CMIA's Shivprasad Jaju said.

Another association Aurangabad First has taken an initiative to install an LPG-based cremation machine in Aurangabad which costs nearly Rs 27 lakh.

"We are installing the gas-based cremation machine in Aurangabad. The contribution has come from all the stakeholders of the society. Even a self-help group has contributed five thousand for the same," Aurangabad First President Pritish Chaterjee said.

The city of Aurangabad which has a large number of medium and small industries has seen a significant decline in business due to the pandemic.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)