New Delhi, November 28: The Luxembourg-based B Medical Systems has been roped in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to boost India's refrigerated supply chain strength ahead of the COVID-19 vaccine launch, reports said on Saturday. The services of cold storage network was offered to Modi by Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel during their virtual bilateral meeting on November 19.

The facility, according to reports citing top official sources, will be set up in Gujarat. The company would be developing a supply chain module involving solar refrigerators, transport boxes and freezers. While the refrigerator boxes would be supplied from Luxembourg, the remaining equipments would be made in India, the reports claimed. Covishield Vaccine: Emergency Use Authorisation Request in Two Weeks, Govt Likely to Buy 300-400 Million Doses by July, Says Adar Poonawalla.

The deal would reportedly be inked under the "Aatmanirbhar Programme", with B Medical Systems being required to pick a domestic partner for the project in Gujarat. The supply chain network that would be developed would reportedly allow the transport of vaccine to the remotest villages at a temperature between 4 to minus 20 degree celsius.

Santosh Jha, India’s top envoy to the European Union, held a virtual meeting with the chief executive officer and deputy CEO of B Medical Systems on November 20 to seal the agreement, HT reported. As per the deal - the official statement on which is still awaited - the site of project has been confirmed as the western Indian state of Gujarat.

The reports came on a day when PM Modi visited the sites of three vaccine manufacturers in India, one of them being in Ahmedabad. The Prime Minister was assured by the developer of Covishield, the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, that the vaccine candidate would be successfully rolled out.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 29, 2020 12:09 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).