By IANS

Kozhikode : Kerala's first state owned Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) facility started functioning at the medical college hospital here Friday. The machine was set up spending Rs.50 million ($1.3 million).

The facility is aimed at providing advanced health care to poor people as the service provided by the private sector is costly.

While the private sector is charging Rs.5,000 to Rs.7,000 per MRI scan, the government is planning to provide the service at Rs.2,250.

Inaugurating the new facility, Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy said: "The government's plan is to provide the scanning service free of cost to all those below poverty line in one year."

Kerala has five government medical college hospitals. The work to install MRI scan facility at the Thiruvananthapuram medical college hospital is on.