Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday flagged off blood collection and vaccine vans for different districts of the state.
These vans will enhance the state's capacity to serve the people in remote areas, Patnaik said.
Two of the blood collection vans would be operated in Keonjhar, and one each in Angul, Jharsuguda and Kandhamal districts.
There are 56 blood banks in the state, and with these new vehicles, the number of blood collection vans rose to 14. More mobile collection vans will be added to existing fleet, an official said.
These five vans, which have facilities like couches for donors, blood storage refrigerators, blood collection monitors and blood bag sealers, were procured at a cost of Rs 54.02 lakh each.
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The 10 vaccine vans flagged off by the chief minister will deployed at Balasore, Bolangir, Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Koraput, among others.
These vans play an important role in the transportation of temperature-sensitive vaccines from high-level vaccine stores to field-level stores and immunisation points. The vaccine vans were procured at a total cost of Rs 3.32 crore, an official said.
