The Victorian Government has announced Melbourne will receive its second safe injecting room – much to the consternation of some locals.

The injecting room, to be located opposite the Queen Victoria Market, has been announced in response to surging demand for the existing North Richmond facility.

Premier Daniel Andrews made the announcement over the weekend following a two-year trial of the medically-supervised North Richmond injecting site.

Mr Andrews says the second facility will save lives.

“There is a need for us to do more to save lives and to change lives not just in North Richmond, but according to our expert panel in the City of Melbourne as well,” he said.

“That's why we as a government will bring a bill in to parliament to establish a second medically-supervised injecting room in Melbourne on Victoria Street.”

Professor Margaret Hamilton, an executive member of the Australian National Council on Drugs, ran an independent review that recommended extending the North Richmond trial another three years and open a second facility in Melbourne’s CBD.

The review found that the existing North Richmond facility is Australia’s busiest supervised injecting room, with 4350 clients registering since it opened. The breakdown of drug use at the facility is 98 per cent heroin, one per cent ice and one per cent taking multiple or other drugs.

The North Richmond pilot injecting room has safely managed 3,200 drug overdoses, saving at least 21 people's lives. No deaths have been recorded at the facility from approximately 119,000 visits.

But the introduction of an additional facility is likely to be controversial, with masses of people protesting against the first injecting facility.

Minister for Mental Health Martin Foley said the state government has begun discussions with the City of Melbourne and other stakeholders.

“If we have saved somewhere between 21 to 260 lives over the last couple of years, then I think adopting the recommendations of this report is a very sensible, humane, public policy outcome,” he said.

“The main activity at the centre is to keep people alive, but there have been some outstanding success stories.”