Tata Steel has drawn up plans to invest around Rs 10 crore in implementing a health-care project at Gopalpur by March. Gopalpur happens to be the site for the companys proposed integrated steel plant.
The health-care project will be handled by the Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS), the agency responsible for all of Tata Steels social welfare projects, in collaboration with the government of Orissa.
The TSRDS will set up a one-month polio, eye and ear treatment camp for children below 12 years. This will be followed by putting up a district-level hospital with assistance from the state government, company sources told Business Standard.
The health-care project is an extension of the companys on-going programme of taking modern medical practices to rural areas through the `Lifeline Express, the worlds first fully staffed hospital on rails.
The train was first used by Tata Steel in 1991 at its collieries in West Bokaro at Hazaribagh. Later, it was used at the Noamundi mines in West Singhbhum in 1995.
Recently, the company used the train for the third time on November 15, 1996, at Dhanbad, where the company operates six captive underground coal mines for power generation.
The extension of the Lifeline Express to Gopalpur is a reflection of the companys overall policy of assuming a strong social identity in the areas that it develops industrially. The steel city at Jamshedpur stands testimony to this fact.
The integrated steel project at Gopalpur, which was conceived as an alternative to the Jamshedpur facility where full-scale production of flat products could not be accommodated, has been the target of considerable criticism.
