Each imported bag costs Rs 15-20 lakh while its Indian counterpart, developed by Bangalore's Defence Bioengineering and Electromedical Laboratory last year, costs only Rs 1 lakh.  

An order has been placed for 3,000 such bags from manufacturers in Kolkata, Barkhi in Pune and Revari in Rajkot following successful field trials in the Khardungla and Siachen — some of the highest glacier belts in the world.  

"A batch of 1,300 Hapo bags will reach Armymen in J&K soon,"  Lt Col S D Goswami said. "In the first phase, the portable one-man lifesaver would be deployed in Siachen, Kargil, Dault-Beigh-Oldi, Chashul, Leh and Kashmir plus some counter-insurgency areas in North-East and Pirpanjal range."  

A Hapo bag typically absorbs carbon dioxide from the body of a patient suffering from pulmonary oedema, a condition in which water accumulates inside his lungs, by increasing surrounding temperature and pressure and pumping in oxygen.