Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani, the country's richest man, will supply oxygen from his refineries to aid the tough battle against Covid-19, which currently has India under its grip.

According to a Bloomberg report, Reliance has started supplying oxygen from its Jamnagar refinery to Maharashtra, free of cost, a company official said on conditions of anonymity.

Maharashtra will get 100 tons of the life-saving gas from Reliance, tweeted Eknath Shinde, urban development minister.

India has registered 2,00,739 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, marking the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.

The sudden spike in cases, attributed mostly to the double mutant strains of coronavirus, has left the Centre and the states grappling for resources.

Amid the growing cases, media reports said patients had been dying due to a shortage of oxygen and hospital beds.

The Bloomberg report cited above said Reliance is diverting some oxygen meant for petroleum coke gasification units after making it suitable for medical use.

Government-owned Bharat Petroleum, too, has created a stockpile of 20 tons of oxygen at its Kochi refinery in Kerala that it is supplying to bottlers for medical use, the report added.

(IBNS)