The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) will take charge of the security cover for the Hyderabad facility of Bharat Biotech, the producer of made-in-India COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, from June 14.
A 64-member team of the paramilitary force will protect the registered office and plant of the pharma company located at Genome Valley in the Shameerpet area of Hyderabad. Meanwhile, it remains unknown if Bharat Biotech or the Centre will bear the security cost.
The Union Home Ministry recently approved a proposal to position CISF at the facility, following which the paramilitary force conducted a survey.
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"The organisation is an important facility when it comes to ensuring medical and health security of the country and it obviously faces a terror threat from various inimical elements. The CISF, hence, has been tasked to secure the Bharat Biotech facility in Hyderabad," an official told PTI.
The force will be inducted on June 14, CISF deputy inspector general and chief spokesperson Anil Pandey told the news agency.
CISF also guards around 10 such facilities across the country, comprising Infosys campuses in Pune and Mysuru, yoga guru Ramdev's Patanjali factory in Uttarakhand's Haridwar, and the Reliance IT Park in Navi Mumbai.
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The force was permitted to give security cover to private installations of public importance after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, where five-star luxury hotels and a Jewish Chabad house were attacked by terrorists from the Pakistan-based militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba.
India, currently, is administering Covaxin, and Covishield (produced by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India), besides small doses of Russia's Sputnik V to its citizens to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.