North's first national disease control centre to come up in Ambala
Tribune News Service
Ambala, December 26
Haryana Home and Health Minister Anil Vij said North India’s first National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) branch will be set up at Naggal in Ambala. The registration of the land, costing Rs 2.03 crore, has been done by the Ambala Municipal Council in the name of the Health Department.
Vij said, “A state-of-the-art lab equipped with modern equipment would be set up here. So far, samples are sent to the NCDC Delhi and other branches, but now the facility of tests for Nipah virus, Zika virus, rabies, zoonotic disease, Covid, Omicron, Hepatitis, besides other viruses, will be done here in this lab. The nearby states will be covered through this branch as there is no such branch in Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.”
He said the NCDC branch would be established on nearly 5 acres. A three-storeyed building will be constructed at a cost of Rs 14 crore. The branch would also be developed as a good training centre for epidemiologists, microbiologists and laboratory technicians. The NCDC team of the centre got a favourable atmosphere in Ambala due to its road, and rail connectivity. Besides, the Chandigarh airport is just an hour away, while Ambala is also proposed to be a domestic airport.
