Glitches in acquiring land lease hit CRI expansion

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, August 21

More than three years after conceiving the project, the Kasauli-based Central Research Institute (CRI) was yet to complete the cumbersome formalities involved in obtaining lease of 128 bigha land from the state government in the panchayat area lying in the precincts of the town.

The institute had initiated the process of acquiring this land in 2016 from the state government for creation of Current- Good Manufacturing Practices (C-GMP) compliant facility for manufacturing therapeutic anti-sera. This initiative would have helped increase the production capacity of the institute to cater to the ever-increasing demand of these life saving anti-sera besides generating significant amount of employment for the educated youth. The former Union Health Minister JP Nadda had announced this project during his visit to the institute in 2016.

With limited space in the present building, the institute was barely able to cater to the 2 per cent of the demand for the therapeutic anti-sera nationally and it was aiming to enhance its capability to as much as 25 per cent through this expansion. The anti-sera is derived from the horses and the animal house in the present building could barely accommodate a maximum of 150 horses. This capacity could be expanded to 1,200 horses which can help cater to as much as 25 per cent of the requirement nationally. Other requisite facility can also be expanded once the lease of the 128 bigha land is granted, informed the institute director Dr Ajay Tehlan.

Since the land in question involves use of a forestry land for a non-forestry purpose, permission under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 will also have to be sought from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. The cumbersome formalities like obtaining consent of the gram panchayat after keeping in view their aspirations for employment and the nitty-gritty of the norms pertaining to the forest department have taken a sizeable time.

The institute’s old manufacturing facility was running on ad-hoc approvals by the central regulator as it was yet to upgrade to the required C-GMP standards. This approval will lapse early next year and the officials were endeavouring to get further extension as manufacture of the anti-sera, which is confined to the old facility, can help the institute earn the much-needed revenue.

Apart from attaining financial stability, this project would also help them cater to the ever-increasing demand of anti-sera nationally. Though the institute has setup a C-GMP approved lab where vaccine production was at an advanced stage but it was yet to get approval of the central regulatory authorities. This will pave way for commercial production of the vaccines.