Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) plans to set up four Bio-Safety Level-3 (BSL-3) laboratories in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune to conduct research on various viral diseases including avian flu.

These US-funded laboratories will come up with the help of an international consultant company and will commence operation by 2006-07. The ICMR expects that the cost for each lab will range from Rs.15 crore to Rs 20 crore, ICMR director general, Prof. N K Ganguly, informed the media.

"The centre at Chennai will handle the entire poultry section in South India, as a large number poultry units are in Tamil Nadu, while the largest laboratory of the four will be at Pune. The Chennai laboratory would be located at the Tuberculosis Research Centre (TRC). Currently, one such laboratory operates in the central zone at Bhopal," he said.

ICMR has also plans to set up a school for public health which offers Post Graduate course in epidemiology in Ambattur, at Chennai. The council will facilitate the school with specialised training of international standards, with the help of Boston University and another American University. The council had commenced a Rural Health and Research Training Centre at Tiruvallur, with an initial investment of Rs 10 crore.

Earlier, an exclusive HIV vaccine trial centre has been inaugurated by the Union Health Minister, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss at Tuberculosis Research Centre (TRC), an institution under ICMR, here at Chennai. The phase 1 experiments of country's second HIV vaccine on human beings commenced at TRC by the first week of February 2006.