10 Years of the TK Eye Bank in Vijayawada
Written by LVPEI Communications
Published 1st September 2026
A significant milestone for the TK Eye Bank (TKEB) at the Kode Venkatadri Chowdary Campus, LVPEI, Tadigadapa, Vijayawada, as it completes ten years of service this year!
Founded in 2016 and inaugurated in 2018 by then Chief Minister Sri Chandrababu Naidu, the eye bank retrieved its first corneal tissue just months after founding, on 27 August 2016. A decade on, it has harvested over 8,000 corneas and supported more than 4,500 tissue utilizations, expanding access to corneal transplants within and beyond the LVPEI network.
The journey has been marked by steady growth. TKEB hosted the first State Transplant Coordinators Training Program in 2022, presented by Dr Aravind Roy, and went on to host the first Network Manager Meet in 2023 and the 14th National Conference on Cornea and Eye Banking in 2024. Most recently, on 15 June 2026, the team successfully prepared its first sterile DSAEK tissue [1], sending its first such tissue to Tara Eye Care, Guntur in August 2026.
None of this would have been possible without the eye bank’s team, supported by dedicated staff, retrieval drivers, and voluntary organizations, partner hospitals, and the wider eye bank community that made this work possible.
As we celebrate this milestone, we remain committed to strengthening eye bank services, promoting tissue utilisation, and expanding our reach in the effort to eliminate corneal blindness.
