A Jamshedpur-based company has developed a Covid-19 mobile testing laboratory which it claims is the country’s first with fully automated sanitisation and thermal scanning facilities.

The mobile lab, developed by Bistupur-based Bharat Engineering and Body Building Company Private Limited, can provide test results within half-an-hour, said the company’s managing director, Navin Bhalotia.

“We built one such mobile testing lab this month and entered into an agreement with Ranchi-based Pragati Hospital and Research Centre for providing lab technicians (at least three in each vehicle) and attendants (at least two in each vehicle) along with drivers. The mobile lab can move in any terrain. It has facilities for testing through ICMR-validated TruNat machines along with IgM/IgG antibody tests. A test will cost Rs 1,250 and results would be available in half-an-hour. We have already applied to the Indian Council of Medical Research for certification,” he said.

Union health minister Harsh Vardhan had launched the country’s first mobile laboratory for Covid-19 testing on June 18, which was developed by a joint collaboration of the ministry of science and technology and Andhra Pradesh-based firm Med-Tech Zone.

“The I-lab launched by the health minister had both RT-PCR and Elisa testing facility and could perform 25 RT-PCR tests in a day. However, our lab can perform more than 40 tests daily and give out results in less than 30 minutes.

“We have gone for Trunat rather than RT-PCR as results are delayed in the latter. One can get a confirmatory RT-PCR test done at a health centre. We have a contact-free automated thermal scanning and sanitisation system installed in the mobile lab, which is not present in the I-lab,” said Bhalotia.

The mobile lab, which measures 15ft by 6ft, costs Rs 55 lakh.

“We gave a demonstration to the Chhattisgarh government earlier this week and have got an order to build four such labs from chief minister Bhupesh Baghel. We also gave a demonstration before Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and are expecting orders for the mobile lab,” said Bhalotia.

The company can manufacture 10 such mobile labs every month after a formal nod from ICMR.

The company has more than four decades of expertise in automobile body fabrication and modelling.