BENGALURU: Bengaluru has emerged as the hub for coverall (PPE) manufacturing in the country, accounting for nearly 50% of the 1 lakh PPEs being produced daily, the Centre said on Sunday.“Production capacity of coveralls required by medical personnel treating Covid-19 cases in the country has been ramped up to more than 1 lakh per day. Bengaluru has become a major hub for production in the country to combat accounting for nearly 50% of the Coverall production in the country,” the Centre said in a press note.Since PPE is a specialized protective suit meant for high level of protection to the health professionals, it has stringent technical requirements as prescribed by the Ministry of Health Family Welfare . Government-run HLL Lifecare Limited is the designated single-window procurement agency for the hospitals and healthcare organisations under the ministry.“Other than Bengaluru, PPEs are being manufactured by approved production units in Tirupur, Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Ahmedabad and Vadodara in Gujarat, Phagwara and Ludhiana in Punjab, Kusum Nagar and Bhiwandi in Maharashtra, Dungarpur in Rajasthan, Kolkata, Delhi, Noida, Gurugram and few other places. The cumulative production till date is approximately one million units,” the note read.During the last week of January 2020, the technical standard for the Coveralls was prescribed as per WHO class-3 exposure pressure in accordance with ISO 16003 or its equivalent. Such materials were being manufactured by a few international companies, who expressed their inability to supply on account of a complete glut in stocks and ban of exports by the source countries. Only a limited quantity was offered and procured by the procurement organization of the ministry.“The ministry finalised the technical requirement on March 2, based on the indigenous availability of materials and the technical requirement for a high level of protection of the healthcare professionals, in consultation with medical experts,” the note added.As of now, there are four laboratories in the country which have the synthetic blood penetration resistance test facilities as well as necessary approvals for conducting tests and certification for PPE required for Covid-19. These are – South India Textiles Research Association (SITRA), Coimbatore, Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior, and two laboratories under Ordnance Factory Board – Heavy Vehicles Factory , Avadi and Small Arms Factory, Kanpur.