The Times of India            13.11.2013 

VMC to develop hi-tech public health lab

VADODARA: Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) is establishing a state-of-the-art public health laboratory (PHL) to analyze samples of food and related items. The civic body also eyes a National Accreditation Board for Laboratories (NABL) certification for the laboratory.

The civic body has a laboratory, but it is a basic one that largely caters to the need of the VMC itself. The new PHL is being developed as a laboratory that will have the status of a regional testing centre and will cater to the needs of both the city and the surrounding areas.

The laboratory is coming up on 12,000 square feet of land near the VMC ward office at Fatehgunj. Officials said the infrastructure for the laboratory is ready and the tendering process for equipment needed there has already started. In the first phase, the VMC plans to have equipment worth Rs 29 lakh at the laboratory.

A NABL team recently conducted a primary inspection of the laboratory and has made suggestions for further developments there. "Based on the gap analysis by the team, we will be doing further work for which we are eyeing a grant from the central government. Besides the instruments in the first phase, the laboratory will be equipped with the state-of-the-art testing equipment worth Rs two crore in the near future," said VMC medical officer Dr Devesh Patel.

The laboratory shall test all food materials and its ingredients, including oils and fats, spices, milk and milk products and other items. There will be a separate section in the laboratory for testing items that fall in different categories.

The state presently has PHLs at all municipal corporations as well as those of the Food and Drugs Control Administration at three different locations. The state government is eyeing modern laboratories at Ahmedabad and Surat municipal corporations besides Vadodara.