Toronto: With unprecedented rise in pollution levels across various cities of India, most of the inhabitants often relish the idea of breathing some fresh country air but it hardly happens. .Each breath of fresh air is very important and when it comes to the people in New Delhi, which was ranked number one on a WHO list of cities with the foulest air, it may seem very precious. But the wait is over now.
According to the Hindustan Times report,from this year May, a start-up canadian company Vitality Air, based in Edmonton in the western province of Alberta is all set to start the sale of canned bottle of air in India at the price of Rs 12.50 per breath.
A Canadian company selling air bottled, made much of headlines in Canada in 2015 after it launched its product in China as it had huge demand among Chinese customers.
That air is made available in 3-litre and 8-litre cans, with twin-packs costing between Rs 1,450 and Rs 2,800.
How they collect the air is a “trade secret” but it’s a “giant vacuum” process. “We suck up all the air in Banff, about 150,000 litres every time and it takes about 40 hours,” Lam said.
He’s confident Indians may be in the market for clean, crisp Canadian air. “The pollution in India is more than in China, we expect it to be our largest market.”
“The pollution in India is more than in China, we expect it to be our largest market.” said Vitality Air’s founder Moses Lam to a leading daily.
He is very much certain about the sale of canned air in India as the condition of air pollution in India is very critical.
“It started as a novelty back in the summer of last year. There were forest fires in Calgary and with all the smoke, people started using our product.” Lam added,.
Lam said. he came up with the business idea after listing a bag of ziplocked air on eBay, which sold for 99 cents."We wanted to do something fun and disruptive so we decided to see if we could sell air."
At the same time, people from China started buying the canned air online and many even gave suggestions that what worked for smoke could apply to smog. With this it was noticed that a distributor in China and now covers seven cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, and has shipped nearly 12,000 pieces to that country.
The canned air product comes in two flavours Banff and Lake Louise and the can consists of compressed air which is breathed in through a mask. Banff in Alberta is a national park and a popular resort.
“It’s close to Edmonton to start with, and it’s actually a natural treasure of Canada, it portrays fresh air,” Lam told.
Justin Dhaliwal from Vancouver is the one who is going to look after India operations.
About 100 bottles have arrived there and they’ll be test-marketing it soon, beginning with sending samples to the Canadian high commission in New Delhi and setting up kiosks in malls while raising social media visibility, told Dhaliwal
The users of bottled air included pregnant mothers, corporate executives, and even students preparing for examinations. By bringing this concept here, they are hoping that their product fly off the shelves in pollution-hit India.
