On April 23, 2020, Defense Minister Shri Rajnath Singh inaugurated Mobile Virology Research and Diagnostics Laboratory (MVRDL) namely “Mobile BSL-3 VRDL Lab” via video conference. The lab was developed by DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) in association with ESIC (Employees’ State Insurance Corporation) Hospital, Hyderabad and Private industry. This mobile lab has the testing capacity of more than 1000 to 2000 samples daily.
i.About MVRDL: The first of such Mobile Laboratory will speed up COVID-19 screening and related R&D (Research and Development) activities was developed by Research Centre Imarat (RCI), the Hyderabad based laboratory of DRDO in consultation with ESIC Hospital, Hyderabad.
ii.The Mobile Viral Research lab is the combination of a Bio-Safety Level (BSL)-3 and a BSL-2 lab essential to carry out activities.
iii.The Mobile lab was set up in a record time of 15 days which usually takes about 6 months and the lab comprises electrical controls, LAN (Local Area Network), Telephone cabling and CCTV (Closed-circuit television) .
iv.The labs are built as per WHO (World Health Organization) and ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) Bio-safety standards to meet international guidelines.
v.The Mobile Lab will be helpful to carry out diagnosis of COVID-19 and also virus culturing for drug screening, Convalescent plasma derived therapy, comprehensive immune profiling of COVID-19 patients towards vaccine development early clinical trials specific to Indian population.
vi.DRDO acknowledged the contributions of M/s iCOMM for provision of containers, M/s iClean for design and build of the BSL 2 and BSL 3 labs in a time bound manner, and M/s Hi Tech Hydraulics for providing the base frame.
vii.The function was also attended by Shri G Kishan Reddy Hon’ble Union Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs, Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Labour & Employment, Shri KT Rama Rao Hon’ble Minister for IT Industries, Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Government of Telangana, Shri Malla Reddy Hon’ble Minister of Labour, Govt of Telangana and Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Chairman DRDO and Secretary of DDR&D (Department of Defense Research and Development).
About DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation):
Headquarters- DRDO Bhavan, New Delhi.
Motto- “Strength’s Origin is in Science”.
Minister- Rajnath Singh.
Chairman- Dr G. Satheesh Reddy.
