Tamil New Year’s Day falling on
14th April 2013 marked the culmination of a Special Economic Zone’s dream to
bring a human touch to its endeavour in bringing about a world class industrial
facility and hub and marked yet another mile stone in the journey of a service
oriented eye care institution towards providing quality eye care across
boundaries. The day marked Sri City Special Economic Zone and Sankara
Nethralaya’s dream of providing quality ophthalmic care to the employees of the
various units in the zone and cost free care to the poor and needy villagers of
the region.
The chanting of Vedas and mantras
at the first floor of Sri City’s Central hospital marked the auspicious
beginning to the inaugural function of the Sri City Sankara Nethralaya to
function from this venue, this was followed by the ceremonial ribbon cutting by
Dr.MYS.Prasad, Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in the
presence of the distinguished invitees, donors/supporters, well wishers, senior
management and staff members of both organizations, vendors/contractors to the
project and local villagers who would be benefiting out of the facility. After
a quick honouring of the chief guest, guest of honour, the consultant who would
be posted at the new facility and the internal and external teams involved in
the project, the action moved to the Sri City business center.
The proceedings at the filled to
capacity business center started with a warm welcome address by Srimati Akila
Ganesan, Senior General Manager, Sankara Nethralaya and an invocation song to
Gajanan the Lord of auspicious beginnings by Ms Sumana Vishnu Vahan, wife of Dr
Vishnu Vahan, Consultant, Sri Srinivasa Sankara Nethralaya.
Speaking on the occasssion Shri
Ravi Sanna Reddy, MD, Sri City Special Economic Zone remarked that it was both
the toughest and happiest day in his life as the 45 day challenge was completed
with clockwork precision, he expressed his profuse thanks to Dr SS.Badrinath,
Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya for consenting to his request for a joint
eye care initiative and attributed its inception to his blessings. Shri Reddy
closed his address with a note of thanks to the Chief Guest, Guest of honour
Professor Mani Sundaram, the first Principal of the REC, Trichy and former
Vice-Chancellor, Bharathidasan University, Shri Chandrasekhar formerly of
L&T who brought about the alliance between the two organizations and Dr
S.Bhaskaran, Chairman, Sankara Nethralaya.
Dr SS.Badrinath started his
address on a vibrant note that if the Sri Srinivasa Sankara Nethralaya embodied
Balaji service the Sri City Sankara Nethralaya would embody Sriharikota
service, he complimented the teams involved for their ‘4 week magic’ denoting
the short frame of time in which the project was completed. He added in lighter
vein that the new facility would propel itself to glorious heights in record
speed as it was inaugurated by the head of India’s premier rocket launch
center. Dr Badrinath highlighted that the new facility would serve the staff
members of industrial units in the zone, serve as a referral hospital for camp
patients and as a cost free eye care center for the poor and needy villagers in
the region. Dr SS.Badrinath declared that Nanobiotechnology and stem cell
therapy would bring about sweeping changes in the clinical processes and
treatment and Sankara Nethralaya as a pioneer in these fields would enter into
a larger area beyond ophthalmology in the years to come.
Shri Chandrasekhar the man who
acted as the bridge between the two institutions congratulated the two pioneers
for coming together and making it happen in a short time. He made a surprise
announcement that Dr Sathya Atluri, the world famous Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineer from Phoenix, USA and recipient of the Padma Bhushan for 2013 has made
a large contribution to the new facility and read out his greeting message for
the inaugural function to the thunderous applause of the gathering. Dr Krishna
Kumar, Principal Elite School of Optometry gave an interesting note on the
pioneering role of Dr SS.Badrinath and Professor PP.Santanam in the development
of occupational optometry, finding a place of importance for this field and its
relevance in overall ophthalmic care. He added that as an eye care facility
located in an industrial zone the Sri City Sankara Nethralaya would enable
better vision to the employees of the diverse units to enable vision and better
productivity through occupational optometry.
Delivering the Chief Guest’s
address Dr .MYS Prasad, Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre thanked the
organizers for the honour, he remarked that it was age old wisdom that one
should do a noble deed on New year’s day and there could not be anything more
noble than starting a service oriented health care facility. He expressed his
happiness and satisfaction that just like the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sri
Harikota the Sri City Special Economic Zone also did not displace or disturb
local villagers but made them an inclusive part of its growth. He expressed
that as one grew old one had the tendency to look for torch bearers to carry
forth one’s work and Sri Sanna Reddy was a great hope in this direction. The
guest of honour Professor Manisundaram, the first Principal of the Regional
Engineering College, Trichy and Vice-Chancellor of the Bharathidasan University
had a high word of praise for his student Sri Ravi Sanna Reddy and added that
the government should outsource its projects to dynamic people like him to
ensure timely completion.
The high power function came to
an end with acknowledgements for their contribution towards timely completion
of the project and kick off to the Sankara Nethralaya and Sri City teams and
vendors by Sri Suresh Kumar, Manager Projects, Sankara Nethralaya and a warm
vote of thanks by Dr Eesh Nigam, Associate Consultant, who would be in-charge
of the Sri City Sankara Nethralaya.
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