The Assam government on Sunday launched the country’s first-ever project of a vaccination drive against Japanese encephalitis, with a target of covering eight lakh people in the worst-affected Sivasagar district.

The pilot project which would take ten days in the first phase to administer vaccination to eight lakh people - all above 15 years - would be followed by a two-year study by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) on the impact and efficacy of the vaccine, state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday.