Will urge Centre to expedite RGCB campus-II projects: MoS Suresh Gopi

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 19 (PTI) Union Minister of State for Tourism, Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi on Friday said he would take up with the Centre the need to expedite the ambitious projects of campus-II of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) at Akkulam here.

After visiting the campus and interacting extensively with the director and senior scientists of the institute, Gopi said he would take up with the union ministers concerned the need to fast-track the various projects, including that of setting up a referral hospital for cancer patients needing palliative care, an RGCB release said.

Speaking on the occasion, the union minister said he was there 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,” Gopi is quoted in the release as having said.

The minister also recalled the service rendered by RGCB during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially as a leading swab testing facility, from which society benefitted significantly at the time, the release said.

During his visit, he also laid emphasis on the need for the campus to be green by planting a flower-tree and naming it ‘Kasturba', the release said, adding that Gopi assured adequate support for the planting of more trees on the campus.

RGCB is an institute under the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, and its campus-II is located about 10 kilometres away from its campus-I in the city.

RGCB campus-II is the hub for research on vaccines and immune-therapeutics, molecular diagnostics, biomarkers, chemical and nano-biotechnology, and tropical disease biology, it said. PTI HMP HMP ANE