Bhubaneshwar, on thursday, With an aim to provide solutions to visual impairment in rural areas of the State, LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) opened an Indian Oil Centre for Rural Eye Health here.

Indian Oil Corporation had offered an assistance of `2 crore to LVPEI as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) contribution for setting up the Indian Oil Centre.

"This will be a nodal centre for advocacy, policy planning and implementation of quality eye health in rural Odisha. A memorandum of understanding was signed between IOCL and LVPEI, Bhubaneswar in March last year", said, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan.

There will the coordination between the facility located on LVPEI, Bhubaneswar campus and secondary and primary eye care centres under the LVPEI community eye health and outreach services.

The aim of the community eye health programme is to create awareness on eye care among rural people to reduce blindness and visual impairment.

Pradhan said, "Working in collaboration with the State Government and other like-minded eye care providers, the centre envisages to create Odisha vision atlas that will help in programme planning of quality eye care in the State".