AHMEDABAD: Fifty-nine-year-old Savji Dholakia of Surat, the owner of Hari Krishna diamond company who was conferred the Padma Shri award recently, has made headlines again.
He has donated a Rs 50-crore brand-new chopper which will be gifted to him by his family for medical and other emergencies in Surat.
His family members decided to gift the chopper to Dholakia after he received the nation's fourth-highest civilian award.
He had been planning to gift a chopper to the people of Surat for quite some time now. When he heard about the surprise gift, he was quick to announce his decision.
"I was not aware my family was going to give such a huge surprise gift. I cannot deny the gift from my family, but I wholeheartedly decided to gift it for the social cause," he said.
"I have not received the helicopter yet since we have to seek many permissions from government regulators. Possibly, we will get everything cleared in a week or so. As soon as that happens, the helicopter will be available for the citizens of Surat. Surat is the economic capital of Gujarat but does not have its own chopper. So, I am dedicating this gift to the people of Surat and for the social cause," added Dholakia, who has dedicated his life to water conservation and digging ponds in the water-starved Saurashtra region.
He has already built over 75 ponds at his native place in Lathi taluka of Amreli district in Saurashtra. All of these ponds were made on barren government land in different villages in Akala, Dudhala, Lathi village, etc.
He had made headlines earlier after rewarding his employees with as many as 500 cars, 471 jewelry sets, and 280 two-bedroom flats as a loyalty program.
Savji Dholakia’s company has an overall strength of 5,500 employees and the company has an annual turnover of more than Rs 6000 crore.
Dholakia, who dropped out of school at 13, came to Surat in 1977 on a state transport bus with just Rs 12.5 (Twelve rupees fifty paisa) only in his pocket as ticket fare and now he is the most influential man in the diamond industry and Surat city as well.
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