The Ordnance Factory Board, headquartered in Kolkata, is in the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. The defence company has decided to produce sanitizers and masks to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
The first batch comprising 1,500 litres of hand sanitizers as per the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) handrub formulation No.1 was despatched by the Cordite Factory Aruvankadu in Tamil Nadu to Thiruvananthpuram on Tuesday. The truck was flagged off remotely by the DGOF and Chairman, Ordnance Factory Board, Hari Mohan from OFBHQ at Kolkata.
Hindustan Latex Limited (HLL), which has been nominated as the nodal agency, has placed an order of 13,000 litres of hand sanitizers on OFB. This is being manufactured in a number of factories.
Hand sanitizers, which contain ethanol, can only be processed in a cool environment with proper ventilation and requires extensive safety precautions. Various teams of officers, staff and workmen toiled ceaselessly to establish and then scale up production.
Apart from hand sanitizers, the units of OFB are also developing masks and coverall. Around half a million masks have been already ordered.
