Land for bulk drug park identified in Nalagarh

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, March 28

The state government has identified 663.11 bigha land at Aduwal village in the Nalagarh industrial area for setting up the Centrally sponsored bulk drug park.

Officials of the Industries Department informed that out of this land, the government land measuring 144.09 bighas falls under a specific pool and matter for exchanging this land into allotable pool has been taken up with the Deputy Commissioner. Once this land is transferred to the Industries Department the case of setting up the bulk drug park will be pursued with the Government of India.

Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers had announced setting up of this park in April last year during his visit to Baddi. This will be the third such park to be set up in the nation after Andhra Pradesh and Ahmedabad.

The setting up of this park will pave the way for major investment in the pharmaceutical sector as it will facilitate the bulk drug manufacture which was a major revenue and employment spinner. With few new industries investing in the state after lapse of the Central industrial package, the investors were keenly awaiting setting up of this park where Central financial assistance will be the major catch for the investors.

The Central government has been promoting the bulk drug industries as they produce active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) which are the raw materials of the pharmaceutical industry. The country was dependent on China for such products and such industries will reduce the country’s dependence of China, said Arun Rawat, former CII chairman and a pharmaceutical manufacturer at Baddi.

The state government was already in the process of facilitating these industries and it had accorded principal approval to two such units — Lupin Pharma and Torrent Pharma — to set up bulk drug units.

There are nearly 650 pharmaceutical industries in the state, where the share of bulk drug manufacturers was less than 2 per cent. Morepen Labs was among the major bulk drug manufacturers here.

The bulk drug industry was categorized among the 17 most polluting industries. Hence, measures like setting up of common effluent treatment plants will have to be taken into consideration while giving approval to such units.

The state exports drugs worth Rs 9,500 crores while its total contribution in drug trade is to the tune of Rs 1,30,000 crore and every third drug in the domestic market is manufactured in Himachal.