Two 350-bed Covid-19 hospitals inaugurated in Odisha; to be fully-funded by Nalco, Coal India arm

State-run Nalco and Coal India arm Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) will fully fund two dedicated 350-bed Covid-19 hospitals in Odisha inaugurated on Monday.

The hospitals were inaugurated by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik along with Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi through video conferencing.

The hospitals started by Odisha government will be run with the help of different medical hospitals of the state.

"National Aluminum Company (Nalco) and Coal India subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) will fully fund two dedicated Covid-19 hospitals in Odisha," the mines ministry said in a statement.

Nalco will fund a 200-bed hospital set up at Nabarangpur district of Odisha, whereas MCL will fund the 150-bed hospital started at Talcher in Angul district of the state.

MCL has also provided its medical college infrastructure for setting up the hospital.

The central government has already issued guidelines to allow state governments to utilise up to 30 per cent of the balance fund available with District Mineral Fund (DMF) to combat Covid-19. This will also help the mineral rich state like Odisha in fighting with the pandemic," Joshi said.

Notably, employees of Nalco have contributed their one-day salary amounting to Rs 2.5 crore to Odisha Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

MCL is already funding a dedicated 500-bed Covid-19 Hospital at Bhubaneswar.

This Coal India arm has also established an over 50-bed isolation centre at Jharsuguda district of Odisha.

The company has also pressed into service the state-of-the-art equipment 'Fog Cannon' to sanitise peripheral areas, besides distributing masks and alcohol-based sanitisers among coal miners and people living in and around its operations.