Tata Steel to set up 100-bed eye hospital in Ganjam district

Bhubaneswar: Tata Steel will fund about Rs 42 crore to set up a 100-bed super specialty eye care hospital at Samarjhola village in Ganjam district. A grant agreement to this effect was signed between the company and Sankara Eye Hospital here yesterday.

As per the agreement, the steel major will extend financial assistance up to Rs 42.3 crore for construction of the proposed hospital and the required infrastructure including equipment to be built over 4.5 acre of land, a company release said.

The Chennai-based charitable eye hospital will implement the project and operate the unit. Out of the total grant, an initial amount of Rs 3 crore was handed over to the hospital authority on the occasion, it added.

The healthcare unit, expected to become operational by early next year, will have facilities like comprehensive eye care, investigations and outpatient treatment, low vision clinic, contact lens clinic, special clinic for children, daycare options, micro-phaco cataract surgeries for spectacle-free vision and glaucoma services.

Arun Misra, vice-president of Tata Steel’s Gopalpur project, signed the agreement on behalf of the company while S. Visvanathan, trustee and secretary of Sankara Eye Hospital, represented the hospital.

Speaking on the occasion, Misra said the company would continue to assist and supplement the efforts of the State government to upgrade and improve the healthcare infrastructure in Odisha.

“With its world-class equipment and highly qualified surgeons, Sankar Eye Hospital will offer services comparable to the best corporate hospitals at a fraction of their cost,” said Visvanathan while addressing the media.

Health and Family Welfare minister Atanu Sabsyasachi Nayak and Science & Technology and Higher Education minister Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy were present on the occasion.