Tent units working overtime to meet quake-hit Nepal's demand

AHMEDABAD: Small-scale units manufacturing canvas fabrics and tarpaulin sheets across India are working overtime since the earthquake struck Nepal on Saturday. With the nature’s fury rendering lakhs shelter-less in the Himalayan nation, these pieces of fabrics would soon be stitched together and converted to relief tents to accommodate the homeless.

“We have to dispatch 2,000 tents to Nepal by Monday,” said Mohit Jain, owner of Mahavira Tents India.

The Ghaziabad-based manufacturer has the capacity to produce 100 tents a day. “We would run full-steam to ensure seamless relief supplies,” said Jain. He is handling three orders for tents from companies that are contributing to the relief efforts in Nepal under their corporate social responsibility initiatives.

“We received a query from the Centre seeking 5,000 tents on Sunday but we could not supply since there were no inventories lying with us. Now we are assessing orders from companies and NGOs across India and Europe and would begin production soon,” said Ajay Nangia, promoter of Sai Tents & Exports. The New Delhi-based company has indicated tent-fabric suppliers of impending orders so that it could begin producing 40 tents per day. Nangia supplied 2,000 tents after the 2004 tsunami and 1,200 after the earthquake in Pakistan.