स्वास्थ्य एवं परिवार कल्याण मंत्रालय 
Update on bio-safety laboratories in the country
165 bio-safety laboratories, including 11 BSL-3 level labs and 154 BSL-2 level labs approved under the scheme “Setting up of a Nationwide Network of Laboratories for Managing Epidemics and National Calamities”
Since 2021, a total of 42 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories approved under the Scheme; 38 labs out of these already functional, 4 labs approved in FY2024-25
Bio-safety laboratories established in various institutes of government bodies and departments: Department of Biotechnology-26 labs; ICMR- 21 labs; CSIR-11 labs; and ICAR-9 labs
5 BSL/ABSL-3 labs funded by Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF)
The Department of Health Research (DHR), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has established a network of Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) under the central sector scheme "Setting up of a Nationwide Network of Laboratories for Managing Epidemics and National Calamities”. Under this scheme, 165 bio-safety laboratories, including 11 BSL-3 level labs and 154 Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) labs have been approved. Besides that, there are 21 other bio-safety laboratories established at various institute of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), having equipped with different level of biosafety such as BSL-4 (1), BSL-3 (8) and BSL-2 (12).
As informed by Department of Science & Technology (DST), Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) has also funded 5 BSL/ABSL-3 labs under the Intensification of Research in High Priority Areas (IRHPA) programme. Based on inputs from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), 26 bio-safety laboratories have been established in various institutes of DBT.
According to Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), 9 bio-safety laboratories have been established in various institutes of ICAR. As per information provided by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), 11 bio-safety laboratories have been established in various institutes of CSIR.
Since the year 2021, a total of 42 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories have been approved under the scheme “Setting up of a Nationwide Network of Laboratories for Managing Epidemics and National Calamities”, out of which 41 labs are BSL-2 and 1 lab is BSL-3. These labs are mainly located in the Microbiology Departments of various medical colleges and research institutions.
The funds from the scheme are utilized for upgradation of infrastructure, procurement of equipment, consumables and manpower support. These labs are mandated to conduct diagnosis & research on mainly viral pathogens of public health importance. The testing data are fed on the dedicated data portal setup at ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE), Chennai, which also has data sharing interface with Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) portal. The laboratory is considered functional once the lab starts reporting on the data portal.
As on date, out of 42 VRDLs, 38 labs are functional since these are reporting the testing data on the ICMR-NIE portal. 4 labs namely, Nagaon Medical College & Hospital, Nagaon, Assam; Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology (SCTIMST), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala; Dr Laxminarayan Pandey Government Medical College, Ratlam and Dr B.R. Ambedkar State Institute of Medical Sciences, Mohali were sanctioned in the financial year 2024-25.
The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Shri Prataprao Jadhav stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
****
MV
HFW/Update on bio-safety laboratories in the country/21March 2025/4
Read this release in: Urdu , Hindi
