Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on July 25 convened a meeting of senior officials to review the construction progress of the advanced virology institute at Thonnakkal near Trivandrum.

The institute is expected to start functioning from January 2019, an official statement said. The construction work of the pre-fabricated building for the first phase of the project is expected to complete by January 2019 and of the main building block with 78,000 sqft area would complete by July.

The institute will have eight divisions in the initial stage following all the security guidelines recommended by WHO for the establishment of virology institute. Chief Secretary Tom Jose, Dr Suresh Das, Executive Vice President of Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE), Dr Beena, MD, KSIDC among others attended the meeting.