Chennai, May 13 (IANS): Dr Sakthivel of Sakthi Nursing Home, Tirupur, the garment capital of South India, is into another venture to help save the lives of Covid patients.

He and Majestic Krishnan, a philanthropist and businessman, have teamed up with the CII-Young Indians and Riders Club, Tirupur and Shiv Niketan School to operate an "Oxygen Bus".

The first five seater bus modified from a school bus will be flagged off on Friday and both Sakthivel and Majestic Krishnan said that more buses are to follow once this gets going.

Sakthivel and Krishnan are already in the news for their initiative in setting up an "Oxygen Pandal" for Covid patients who need oxygen replenishment but face hurdles as oxygen beds are not available in hospitals. To help such people, Sakthivel converted the car garage of his hospital and arranged oxygen cylinders and six beds in this shed for the patients to come and get oxygen replenishment free of cost. Sakthivel said that most of the patients use this facility at night and by day time their relatives would have arranged a bed for them.

Majestic Krishnan and his "Nattireni foundation" supported the initiative of Sakthivel.

The duo is now developing an "Oxygen Bus" which is a sort of a mobile oxygen facility for those in need of oxygen. The idea conceived by Sakthivel is being executed by CII-Young Indians. Majestic Krishnan has chipped in by providing five Oxygen Concentrators which cost Rs 1 lakh each.

The bus is donated by Shiv NIketan School and the CII-Young Indians and Riders club are executing the project. Five seats have been arranged in the bus and this bus service, according to the organisers, is a pilot project and has got the approval from the local administration.

Pranav Sai Velvan, Chairperson of Young Indians, told IANS, " This is our pilot project and we will be rolling out more buses as we have to see how this goes forward. We have lined up buses and funds for buying more Oxygen Concentrators."