SAMBALPUR: The Excise department along with Drug Control Administration, has set a target to manufacture 10,000-litre hand sanitiser in the district for supplying to Government departments across the State. Both the departments had recently joined hands to manufacture sanitiser at an existing liquor bottling plant at Jayantpur on the outskirts of the city.
Drug Inspector S Mallik said, “We have been asked by the State Government to manufacture 10,000-litre hand sanitiser in the first phase. It will be supplied free of cost to Government departments only. Financial assistance for the venture is being provided by the State Government.”
The bottling plant has the capacity to manufacture 1,000-litre sanitiser per day. Around 15 employees of the plant have been engaged in the manufacturing process. While the bottling plant is providing ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and glycerine are being added to it for preparing the solution.
Mallik said 5,000 litre sanitiser has already been manufactured and supplied to the district headquarters hospital. “Local production of hand sanitiser will ease the burden on the Government to a large extent,” he said. Usually, sanitiser is sold for `100 per 200 ml. However, a nominal amount is being spent on production of sanitiser at the bottling plant here due to which local medicine shop owners are interested in buying it from the unit. However, there is no provision to sell the sanitiser to individuals or private entities as of now.
NIT-R takes to sanitiser manufacturing
Rourkela: The National Institute of Technology-Rourkela (NIT-R) has started manufacturing sanitiser as per WHO guidelines for use by its own staff and other organisations. NIT-R Director Prof Animesh Biswas on Friday distributed 16 litre of sanitiser among officials of Covid-19 hospital on the premises of Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital and Rotary Club. The institute has stored 14 litre of the solution for its own use.