The Regional Medical Research Centre, Port Blair is one of the six Regional Centres of the Council. The Centre was incepted in 1983 with the objectives of carrying out biomedical research on communicable and non-communicable diseases prevalent in Andaman and Nicobar Islands with a special emphasis on the health problems of the indigenous tribes and to develop technical manpower locally. However, during the past two five-year plans, the Centre recognized its identity and made rapid strides towards achieving its set objectives.

The Centre was established on 1 April 1983 to carry out biomedical research with special emphasis on the health problems of the indigenous tribes. A field station of the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata was functioning at Port Blair until 1983, which was merged with the RMRC. The Centre started functioning in a rented building in Farzand Ali Market at Aberdeen Bazar, Port Blair. The Centre at that time had minimum laboratory facilities for clinical research.

To carry out biomedical research on locally prevalent communicable and noncommunicable diseases with a special emphasis on the health problems of indigenous tribes and also to develop technical manpower locally.

In addition to the activities as part of the special roles in the National context, the Centre also needs to fulfill its original obligations as the regional biomedical research Centre of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Therefore, several research programmes on communicable and non-communicable diseases that are important to the islands from public points of view are also being carried out. These include vector-borne diseases, diarrhoeal disease, cardiovascular and other chronic non-communicable diseases and nutrition.