As a part of its anti-malaria programme, public sector enterprise Gas Authority of India Limited (gail) has tied up with the World Health Organisation (who) to manufacture insecticidal mosquito nets. gail will use high-density polyethelyne (hdpe) to make these nets.
The company's petrochemical plant manufactures hdpe in surplus, making it possible for it to venture into this community scheme. Sumitomo Chemicals, Japan, will provide the insecticidal which will be interwoven with the hdpe granules in the polymers. As against the existing practice of dipping ordinary polyester or nylon nets into an insecticide solution, the insecticide gets released at a controlled rate from the gail nets and kills the vectors.
gail will look into the production, trial, distribution and feedback of the product. It has identified manufacturers in Karur, Tamil Nadu, where mosquito nets are produced in large quantities. The material cost for the pilot project would be borne by gail. The trial production of 11.5-micron filament will be done in Bangalore and Pune.
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