India will have its first manufacturing facility for the Medical Linear Accelerator (LINAC) here under the Jai Vigyan Mission of Department of Information Technology (DIT).
The Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER), an autonomous institute under DIT which pioneered the development of an indigenous Medical LINAC, will construct the manufacturing facility within three years at a cost of Rs 24.88 crore, DIT Secretary D S Mathur said here today after laying the foundation stone.LINAC machine is used for radiation therapy in cancer patients and the establishment of the facility is for batch fabrication of LINAC tubes and Linear accelerators.
βThe new infrastructure under the integrated Oncology system, scheduled for commissioning in 2008-09 will facilitate batch fabriction of two medical Linac machines per year in the beginning and more thereafter,β SAMEER's director K R Kini said.
Mathur said DIT will provide more financial assistance to SAMEER for expanding the programme further as the country requires around at least 1,000 such medical Linac machines to treat cancer patients at the rate of one machine per million,β he said.
SAMEER which has the expertise in 4 MV (beam energy) Medical LINAC, has installed its first 6 MV Medical LINAC under the integrated Oncology system at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical sciences at Wardha. It will be used on patients after getting final clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, Kini said.
Source: PTI News
