Pollution control steps in place

Paradip: The Odisha Pollution Control Board has directed the Paradip Port Trust hospital to install a waste treatment plant in accordance with the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1988.

The port-run hospital lacks facility to scientifically handle liquefied biomedical waste. They have been asked to install the plant at the earliest.

Regional officer of the pollution control board Mukesh Mahaling said that it was the duty of every institutions generating bio-medical waste to initiate steps to ensure their scientific handling. This, he said, would help people and environment avoid the adverse effect bio-medical waste.

Though the hospital has a well-equipped solid waste treatment plant, it's not properly handled, Mahaling said.

According to the revised Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1988, it is mandatory for 50-bed hospitals, both government and private, to have solid and liquid waste management facilities. The port hospital here has 64-beds and there it was binding on it to have a liquid waste management plant, he said.

"We have received the directions of the pollution control board. The port authorities are initiating steps to build a liquid waste treatment plant on the hospital premises," said the hospital's chief medical officer Prahallad Panda.

While it gets ready to set up the waste management plant, the Paradip Port Trust authorities have drawn up a plan to build a super-specialty hospital here. The proposed hospital will extend specialised health care facilities to people living in and around the town.

The proposed state-of-the-art hospital would have 400 beds and it would be a public private partnership venture. The health unit will be equipped with advanced diagnostic facilities to match the standards of a medical college standard, said an official of the port trust.

The private players will develop the hospital according to guidelines of the Medical Council of India, he added.