Excise dept produces sanitisers to cater to demand

The Excise department has ventured into production of sanitisers in distilleries due to acute shortage of the same, owing to increase in COVID-19 cases.

The department has been making sanitisers in Sarvada Distilleries in Udupi and supplying it across the district, along with Dakshina Kannada district, since a fortnight.

Realising the shortage of sanitisers in the state, the department commissioner had issued an order to produce the sanitisers in all the distilleries. Accordingly, the production for the first time in state begun at Sarvada Distilleries in Udupi.

Availing special permission on March 20 and 22, the department had initially produced 300 litres of sanitisers. Of which, 293 litres were supplied to the district administration free of charge. Following a demand from the Dakshina Kannada district administration, the permit was obtained from Drugs Controller to manufacture the sanitisers. In the first phase, 1,800 litres of sanitisers were supplied to Dakshina Kannada.

When the demand increased, an additional 900 litres were supplied on Wednesday, Excise department Deputy Commissioner D Nagesh Kumar said.

“Udupi district received 1,643.76 litres of sanitisers. Though we can charge up to Rs 187.50 for 375 ml bottle, we have been selling the same for Rs 80,” the officer added.

As per the guidelines of World Health Organisation (WHO), a sanitiser should have 70% of alcohol content in it to destroy the virus.

“We are using 80% of alcohol and the sanitiser is effective,” Kumar expalined.

“There is no problem in availing spirit from distilleries. However, there is shortage of supply of glycerine and hydrogen peroxide. The required raw materials are procured from Dakshina Kannada. If we get the raw materials and the needed staff, then we can meet the demands,” Kumar added.