The Centre will spend around Rs 6 crore to curb the encephalitis menace in the Himalayan Terai region of eastern UP and Bihar. The Union Minister of States for Surface Transport and Highways, R P N Singh said in Gorakhpur on Friday that the Centre has also decided to establish a field unit of National Institute of Virology, Pune at BRD Medical College of Gorakhpur. It will study the factors involved spreading the various forms of encephalitis common in the region. He said, the Centre had sanctioned Rs 1.41 crore under the National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme. A massive vaccination drive against the encephalitis is also due to start next year. AIR Gorakhpur correspondent reports that about 450 patients have succumbed to the disease this year. Of them about 15 per cent died due to Japanese Encephalitis while rest were the cases of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome.