Bengaluru,  Karnataka has decided to allocate five acres in the Gandhi Krishi Vigyana Kendra campus of the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bengaluru for setting up a National Institute of Virology lab, state Health Minister K. Sudhakar said on Wednesday.

He said that the Centre had decided to set up new NIV laboratories around the country, and Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa wrote a letter to the Union government to set it up in Bengaluru among southern states.

"..as a result of this, the Union government has given us the green signal to proceed ahead with the project," he said.

According to Sudhakar, the process to hand over the land will be completed soon and construction will also start soon.