In response to President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s appeal to all factories and companies in Uganda to donate at least one brand new vehicle that will help the National Taskforce in their efforts to combat the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19), City Mogul, Tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia through the Ruparelia Foundation has donated two brand new Tata Xenon pickups, which will help MoH officials as they execute their duties in the fight against the deadly disease.
President Museveni while addressing the nation on Friday April 04 night appealed to the rich to donate all they can to help combat the new enemy.
“I call upon our rich people to contribute new vehicles so long as they are 4-wheel drive. I won’t accept the second hand. Even after this problem is over, this can be the fleet of the Ministry of Health”.
Tycoon Sudhir thus said “The Ruparelia Family, through the Ruparelia Foundation is happy to contribute to the national effort to contain the spread of the Coronavirus because it posses the biggest threat to human race, and a concerted, united effort is a better answer in response to the pandemic”
He added that since there are about 5000 factories and companies in Uganda, if each of them donated only one vehicle, he would deploy at least 10 vehicles per district to help the Ministry of Health in its response to COVID-19 across the country.
Xenon Pick-Up is a utility vehicle coming from Indian automotive giant TATA Motors. It is a heavy-duty pickup truck with a powerful engine.
Xenon comes with a 3.0-litre diesel (2956cc) water-cooled direct injection engine which gives out a maximum power of 114 Bhp @ 3000 rpm and at a maximum torque of 250 Nm @ 1000-2000 rpm.
The vehicles will be officially handed over to the COVID-19 Taskforce which is headed by the Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Ruhakana Rugunda, at a date convenient to the taskforce.
Prior to donating the pickups, Dr Sudhir, through the Ruparelia Foundation, last week delivered food, water and other essential medical supplies to over 5000 vulnerable people living in deplorable areas of Kampala after government banned the use of public transport means following a national lockdown in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Uganda, has by April 04 registered 48 cases of the novel Coronavirus.