Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will join a videoconference meeting on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold with the chief ministers of several states to discuss infrastructure needed for Covid-19 vaccination once the vaccine is available in the country.

The videoconference is slated for 11am on Tuesday, a source said.

The meeting is important — Mamata tweaked her Bankura tour itinerary to be present at the meeting — as the PM is likely to outline the steps the states need to take up for the gigantic vaccination programme.

“The CM reached Bankura on Sunday, changing her original plan to reach there on Monday,” said a source.

Sources said Mamata last attended a videoconference with the PM on July 26 during the inaugural programme to upgrade the NICED lab for more Covid 19 tests.

“In that meeting she did not get a chance to speak much, but at Tuesday's meeting, she is likely to raise important issues if given a chance to speak,” said a source, adding that the state government would like the health department be made the nodal agency to conduct the vaccination programme in Bengal. “It is not possible for a central agency to hold the programme here because of lack of infrastructure. The health department has almost all needed infrastructure. On its part, the Centre should help the state develop cold chain (for vaccine storage),” said a bureaucrat.

Mamata, sources said, would like to urge the Centre to help states develop cold chains in advance. She has instructed the health department to ensure that lack of infrastructure should not be a hurdle to vaccination.