GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH RESEARCH
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3550
TO BE ANSWERED ON 21ST MARCH, 2025
BIOSAFETY LABORATORIES
3550. SHRI B K PARTHASARATHI:

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:
(a) the details of the existing strength of bio-safety laboratories in the country, State-wise classified as per their Bio-safety level (BSL), State/ UT-wise;
(b) the details of the number of bio-safety labs established and under construction under the scheme for setting up of Nationwide Network of Laboratories for Managing Epidemics and National Calamities, State-wise and year-wise since 2021 as per their BSL and area level i.e. regional, State or medical college level; and
(c) the details of the funds released by the Government for the establishment of Bio-safety labs under the said scheme, year-wise since 2021?

ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
(SHRI PRATAPRAO JADHAV)

(a): 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 BSL-2 level labs have been approved. Besides that, there are 21 other biosafety 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.
The State-wise breakup of Bio-safety laboratories is annexed at Annexure-I.
(b): 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 up gradation 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 current financial year 2024-25. The detailed breakup, state-wise, level and their biosafety level is annexed at Annexure-II.
(c): The details of the funds released for the establishment of Bio-safety labs under the said scheme, year-wise since 2021 is given in Annexure-III.