Piramal Diagnostics Services Pvt Ltd, the clinical diagnostics services arm of Piramal Group, is working on an expansion plan to enter the eastern part of the country along with increasing its presence in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with more diagnostic and collection centres.

The company, which currently has 104 diagnostic centres in 48 cities and over 300 collection centres across the country, has plans to set up five to seven centres in East India in within a year. At present, the company has no presence in this region. Plans are to set up collection centres through franchisee in some of the major towns in the region, informed Girish Mehta, president and chief executive officer, Piramal Diagnostics Services.

"Our strategy is to expand business by offering a wide range of services with quality under one roof. We are keen to set up centres in east India, but the plans are not yet finalised," said Mehta. The company is also planning to open more centres in South Maharashtra and North Karnataka and cities including Pune, Aurangabad, Bhopal, Dehradun, Vijayavada, Vizag, Trichi and Madurai.

Piramal Diagnostics will also be complying with the standards set by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories. The company is in the process of getting accreditation from the Board for at least 4 of its centres in Mangalore, Secunderabad, New Delhi and Surat. At present, 10 centres including six in Mumbai have NABL accreditation. The company expects to receive certificates for four centres this year, informed Mehta.

Piramal Diagnostics will have its focus on pathology diagnostics services for the near future, as the segment calls for priority than the other services offered by the company. The company offers a wide spectrum of services in pathology, radiology and health check-ups through the centres, which together is known as clinical diagnostic services.

The company performs over four million pathology and radiology tests every year. It has also set up six centres of excellence, focused labs equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and experienced technicians, in Histopathology, Molecular Biology, Cytogenetics, Immunoassays & Microbiology and Haematology.