Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his three-city vaccine tour on Saturday starting with pharma major Zydus Cadila’s plant in Gujarat to review the development of the much-awaited coronavirus inoculation and its manufacturing process.

The PM’s visit to the Changodar facility followed his arrival at the Ahmedabad airport at around 9.20 a.m. on Saturday, where he was welcomed by the Chief Secretary of Gujarat Anil Mukim.

His three city tours will also include Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh where pharmaceutical companies are into preparation of the vaccine against Covid-19, Pune’s Serum Institute of India (SII) and Hyderabad’s Bharat Biotech being the next two destinations.

From the Ahmedabad airport he was flown to Changodar by the Indian Air Force chopper. From Changodar, he was taken to Zydus Cadila pharma company’s Biotech plant via road.

At the Zydus Cadila Biotech plant, the PM was welcomed by the pharmaceutical company’s chairman Pankaj Patel and his son and the company’s MD Sharvil Patel.

Modi also had a chat with Sharvil Patel’s children.

Before a detailed meeting with the company’s chairman, MD and scientists, Modi watched the presentation about the coronavirus vaccine development.

Vaccine trials and distribution were discussed during the almost half an hour meeting at the Biotech plant.

The Zydus company is into its second phase of clinical trials of the vaccine called the ZyCov-D. Shortly, the third phase clinical trials are expected by the company in December.

The PM was also given a brief inspection of the plant where the corona vaccine is being developed.

A special Helipad was prepared at Changodar for the PM’s chopper to land. More than 500 police personnel were deployed at Changodar to oversee and maintain security, including 4 Superintendent of Police (SP), 10 DySP, 12 Police Inspector (PI) and 40 Police Sub Inspectors (PSI). Apart from that, the BDDS, SOG and LCB personnel were also there.

His other stop in Hyderabad is for Bharat Biotech which is into its third phase of trials of it’s vaccine, ‘Covaxine’, which is being developed in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to be carried out in many parts of the country, including Ahmedabad.

PM will be in Pune’s Serum Institute of India also in its second phases of trials of the vaccine, which is being developed in collaboration with the Oxford university.