Pune, May 25 (PTI) Pune mayor Murlidhar Mohol has written a letter to Union health minister Harsh Vardhan asking for permission for the local civic body to buy vaccine doses directly from the city-based Serum Institute of India (SII).

The SII which produces Covishield vaccine against coronavirus has its plant on the outskirts of the city.

He and officials of the Pune Municipal Corporation met SII officials and also wrote to them seeking at least 25 lakh doses for the Pune city, Mohol told reporters.

'We are also planning to float a global tender for vaccines. Since the SII is located in Pune, I wrote to the SII and had a couple of meetings with PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar and their officials. The SII is ready to cooperate but they asked us to get permission from the Union health ministry," he said.

Hence he wrote to Harsh Vardhan and requested him to grant the PMC permission to buy vaccine doses directly from the SII by treating "Pune city as a special case", he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)