L&T to Provide Medical Aid worth Rs.40 Crore to Combat COVID19
- Over and above its Rs.150 Crore donation to PM-CARES Fund, the conglomerate
to donate 45,000 PPEs, 1,51,000 N95 masks and 155 diagnostic kits capable of
conducting 15,500 COVID19 tests
- Donated ventilators, hospital beds and other hospital equipment to various hospitals
- Help is provided to various health agencies belonging to Central government and state governments
Chennai, 18 April:As a part of its
corporate responsibility to help India fight COVID19, Larsen & Toubro,
India’s leading technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and
financial services conglomerate, plans to further donate COVID diagnostic Kits,
PPEs, N95 masks and other medical equipment worth Rs.40 Crore.
This is over and above the donation of Rs.150 Crore by the company
to the PM-CARES Fund announced on March 30 and Rs.500 Crore per month for providing support to 160,000
contract labour spread across the country.
Commenting on this development, Mr. SN
Subrahmanyan, CEO & MD, Larsen & Toubro said: “We are supporting the
central and state governments in this critical hour and offering all possible
help in India’s fight against COVID19. As a responsible corporate citizen, we
are providing the PPEs, diagnostic kits, N95 masks and critical hospital
equipment including ventilators that will be helpful in effectively combating
the pandemic. This is over and above our help of ₹150 Crore towards PM-CARES Fund and we will be
further helping the authorities in making other medical supplies available as
well.”
The conglomerate further plans to donate 45,000,
Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to various healthcare organisations under
State governments of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Telangana. It plans to donate 151,000 N-95 masks to
health agencies in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and
Maharashtra.
It has already handed over 100 semi fowler beds
with matresses, 2 ventilators, 7 bipap ventilators and 20 multi parameter
monitors to Tamil Nadu Health Department-run,The King Institute of Preventive
Medicine and Research, Chennai.The institute will further receive 8 ventilators
from L&T shortly. The company also plans to donate 12 ventilators for state
health authorities in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
L&Tis sourcing155 Make-in-India test kits -
capable of conducting 15,500tests - developed by Pune based molecular
diagnostic company, Mylab Discovery Solutions to be donated to Central
government and state governments. Each kit can conduct 100 tests and is capable
of detecting infection in 2.5 hours as opposed to other imported kits that take
longer duration.
The World Health Organization says testing
people with symptoms of the coronavirus lies at the heart of fighting the
pandemic. But the world is facing shortage of testing kits and world-over laboratories
are managing with short supplies or with lower capacities to detect suspected
cases. India is gearing up to deploy more test kits to perform Covid-19
screening and corporate like L&T are also contributing to this cause.
As the daily wage earners are facing problems
during the lockdown, L&T has also provided grocery kits to 1,966 families
and cooked meals provided to 8,000 people in Mumbai through its NGO partners.
Also, the company is providing 2,000 meals per day for 2 weeks to doctors,
sanitation workers, stranded families in public hospitals in Chennai. Additionally, 20,000 meals being provided to
migrant workers and labourers in the state capital of Tamil Nadu.
The conglomerate has already set aside an outlay
of over Rs.500 Crore per month to
support about 160,000 contract workers by continuing to pay their wages during
the ongoing lockdown and providing them with food and basic amenities at labour
camps, while maintaining the COVID-19 prevention and containment protocol.
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