The Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) and the MNJ Institute of Oncology (Hyderabad) are jointly setting up an air pollution related diagnostic centre at Hyderabad. GAIL will be establishing such centres, one each at Vijayawada and Rajahmundry.

GAIL has earlier associated with SDS Tuberculosis and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases Hospital Authorities of Bangalore, Government Medical College and AG Hospitals of Kota, Lala Ram Saroop Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases of New Delhi to establish centres in the cities.

GAIL is also planning to establish such diagnostic centres in 22 cities in Agra, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Mathura, Pune, Sholapur, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Gwalior, Indore, Jhansi, Bareilly, Delhi, Ujjain, Mumbai, Kota, Kolkata, Rajahmundry, Chennai and Bangalore. The company is likely to fund Rs 20 lakhs for each centre.

Looking into the health hazards by the vehicular emission and the pollution by several other means, GAIL has come up to start air pollution related diseases diagnostic centres in these 22 cities which will be self contained units with modern diagnostic amenities and medical personnel.

It is estimated that as many as five million deaths are caused by air pollution every year in India. It is also estimated that in India there are about 40 million asthmatic patients because of polluted air.

These centres will be sponsored by GAIL in partnership with reputed hospitals / institutions in health care activities. The concept is to provide diagnostic facilities and treatment which will facilitate baseline investigations for the diagnosis. The APRDCs would work as R&D for the development of facilities for diagnosing suspended particles, which are known to cause various heart diseases and the levels of these particles are at alarming level in the environment.

The APRDCs are being set up as a part of the Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives of the company.