Guwahati (PTI): The Assam government on Tuesday launched free cancer treatment facilities, including chemotherapy and anti-cancer drugs, at Dr B Barooah Cancer Institute here.

Launching the scheme, chief minister Tarun Gogoi said that it was a part of the state government's endeavour to improve the healthcare system through a slew of initiatives undertaken in the past couple of years.

"The scheme of providing anti-cancer drugs to the patients will give them much-needed relief as the treatment is very expensive", he said.

The chief minister said that with the availability of chemotherapy drugs free of cost in the Cancer Institute equipped with the state of art technology, the patients need not go outside the state for treatment.

"It is indeed heartening to note that patients who had gone outside the state for treatment has returned to the Cancer Institute for further treatment and the government will continue to help develop the institute into a well-equipped one for cancer treatment, research and training," he said.

State Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the launching of the free chemotherapy treatment was a red-letter day as no other state had launched such a scheme.

The government, he said, would soon launch a host of new initiatives which include free post-operative kidney transplant treatment, spectacles and hearing aids to poor people in the coming months.

It has already provided 135 pace-makers free of cost to the patients, he said.