Kathmandu, May 8

The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies today provided Rs 100 million grant to Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology for lens production.

Chief Administrator at TIO Bhagirath Baniya said, “The government support will help us increase our lens production capacity. However, we will have to manage budget for procurement of advanced machines and construction of new buildings on our own.”

TIO is only hospital in the country which has been producing lens. TIO has the capacity of producing 450,000 lenses in a year. Of them 150,000 lenses are used inside the country, while the remaining are exported.

Baniya said TIO had been exporting lens to 35 countries. There is a high demand for lenses in China, Pakistan and Thailand. “We are not being able to supply lens as per the demand, but hope to export more lenses soon,” he said.

TIO will start producing lenses from new labs next year. “We produce 500 lenses in one batch. Production of one batch of lenses takes three weeks,” he added.

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