Union Minister Suresh Gopi visits RGCB’s campus-II; pledges support to projects
Minister plants flowering tree on campus, names Kasturba
Trivandrum / July 19, 2024
Thiruvananthapuram, July 19: Union Minister of State for Tourism, Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Suresh Gopi today said he would take up with the Centre the need to expedite the ambitious projects of the campus-II of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) at Aakkulam here as a hub of advanced medical research and medicine development.
After a visit to the campus and extensive interaction with the Director and senior scientists, Shri Suresh Gopi said he would take up with the ministers concerned the need to fast-track the path-breaking projects undertaken by RGCB’s campus-II, including that of setting up a referral hospital for cancer patients needing palliative care.
RGCB is an institute under the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.
“I came here for a 30-minute session with the institute’s scientists. But it went on for two-and-a-half hours. Many people do not know about the advanced scientific research projects taken up by the institute and its competence and efficiency,” Shri Suresh Gopi said.
Shri Suresh Gopi said he would take up issues relating to the development of the campus with Union Minister for Science and Technology & Minister of Health Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh.
Also, he will take up with Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Shri J P Nadda the RGCB’s proposal to set up a referral hospital and request Union Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman to provide adequate funds for the project.
The minister also recalled the service rendered by RGCB during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially as a leading swab testing facility from which the society benefited significantly at the time.
Emphasising that the campus needs to be a green one, the Minister also planted a flower-tree and named it ‘Kasturba.’ He assured adequate support to plant more trees on the campus.
RGCB’s campus-II, located about 10km from the campus 1 in the city, is the hub for research on vaccines and immune-therapeutics, molecular diagnostics, biomarkers, chemical and nano-biotechnology, and tropical disease biology. It is a unique knowledge centre for mid and high-level innovation founded on deep and advanced-level technical platforms.
RGCB Director Dr Chandrabhas Narayana said the interaction with the Union Minister was highly engaging and fruitful.
Shri Suresh Gopi showed keen interest in various pioneering projects of the campus that will benefit the society and pledged his support for their realisation.
He said the Minister was briefed on the RGCB’s proposal to develop a 150 to 200 bed referral hospital in PPP model for cancer patients, especially those needing palliative care. The project, envisaged as a facility with ICU-convertible beds, is estimated to cost Rs 400 crore.
Prof Narayana said the Minister also promised to look into a proposal to develop the campus as an international medical tourism hub with advanced facilities to hold international medical events and conferences.
“Medical tourism concentrating on traditional medicine can be augmented by testing of patient samples from the baseline test like regular blood parameters to high-end proteomics, metabolomics, genomics etc. The Ministry of Tourism could extend all the support for carrying forward this initiative,” Prof Narayana said.
The institute is developing facilities like an amphitheatre with a seating capacity of 2500 to conduct national and international events.
Another major project that came up during the interaction was that of intervention in the health of tribal communities to address genetic health issues found among them. For this, RGCB has a project of preparing a health card for tribal people with genetic features recorded in them.
Ends
