Metropolitan surveillance unit project picks up pace
₹ 1crore for the project to Pune Municipal Corporation. (Bloomberg (PIC FOR REPRESENTATION))
According to the officials, the civic body has forwarded a proposal to appoint 19 experts and technical staff to speed up the work to the municipal commissioner for approval. A private agency has been hired to prepare the detailed project report and tender documents.
Since 2021, PMC has been working to set up the unit and a 5,000 square feet space in Jawale Bhavan, Kasba Peth was finalised in May 2025. The unit will be funded by the central government and a budget proposal of ₹8.28 crore has been approved. The MSU is a special unit with a laboratory facility aimed at understanding the nature and cause of diseases in an urban context and identifying potential disease outbreaks, they said.
Dr Vaishali Jadhav, assistant health chief, PMC, said central authorities have completed the site visit. A project monitoring committee has been appointed, including experts from the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme and National Centre of Diseases Control. 'The unit will be developed by PMC and monitored by the state public health department,' she said.
The unit will also have an in-house laboratory to test samples for various infectious diseases, said officials.
Dr Nina Borade, health chief, PMC, said a technical committee with experts from the National Institute of Virology, Sassoon General Hospital, public health and microbiology departments of PMC-run medical college, among others have been appointed. 'Once the project report is completed, a tender will be floated by the civic electric and building department to set up the unit,' she said.
'As part of the initiative, PMC has mapped 109 hospitals in the city on the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) for disease surveillance,' Dr Nina said.
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