Health minister Mangal Pandey has vowed to open eye banks in every medical college hospital of the state in what will come as good news for those suffering from corneal blindness.

Pandey made the announcement at an event organised by Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) on Monday attended by deputy chief minister Sushil Modi, National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization director Vimal Bhandari and others.

At present, eye banks and corneal transplant facility is only available at IGIMS. As per experts, IGIMS alone cannot cater to the cornea requirement of the state because after death, an eye bank has to extract cornea within six hours of the person's death and reaching every nook and corner of the state is impossible for the IGIMS team to extract cornea within the timeframe.

Bhandari announced that his organisation will provide the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization at IGIMS Rs 54 lakh to develop the various organ transplant departments. "We are ready to provide financial help to IGIMS for its training in various organ transplant-related programmes during his speech. "We need at least Rs 30 crore for construction of the medical college, another Rs 250 crore for the hospital associated with the medical college in addition to Rs 30 crore to develop infrastructure for various organ transplants. Besides, we require Rs 30 crore for development of private wards," said Biswas.

Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty directs laser beams into the retina to the lower intra-ocular pressure and opens an alternative pathway for the natural cleansing of the eye by the aqueous humor fluid. The procedure targets specific cells and leaves surrounding tissues intact.