Drug makers await pharma park in Karnal

Nearly eight-and-a-half years after the announcement of a dedicated pharma park in Karnal, the long promised project, seems to be on papers, brewing resentment among pharmaceutical manufacturers of Haryana. Members of the Haryana Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (HPMA) say the delay in setting up of the pharma park may further hit the industry.

The pharma park was first announced by the former Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers HN Ananth Kumar on May 16, 2017, at Murthal, in the presence of then Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. The announcement was reiterated by Khattar in May 2018 and later announced again in the BJP’s Sankalp Patra during the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections.

However, the association pointed out that despite repeated representations, the project still appeared to be a distant dream. The primary bottleneck, they say, is the non-finalisation of land by the association and approval by the government.

The pharma park was announced with an aim to make India self-reliant in medicine production and reduce drug costs. The project proposed development over 100 acres, with an estimated cost of Rs 1,600 crore, expected to attract investments of around Rs 3,000 crore and generate employment for thousands. HPMA president RL Sharma urged the government to fulfil its repeated assurances and said that Haryana was once a major pharmaceutical manufacturing hub due to its strategic location near the National Capital Region (NCR). “Haryana was considered a pharma hub, but when special packages and special incentives were offered by Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, most pharma units shifted there,” he said. “The setting up of a pharma park in Karnal will revive the industry, and many units that migrated are willing to return,” he added.

Recently, a delegation of the HPMA, led by Karnal MLA Jagmohan Anand, met Haryana Industry and Commerce Minister Rao Narbir Singh, to press for the setting up of Pharma Park.

The association demanded the government to provide incentives and special packages to pharma industrialists on a par with Jammu Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh.

The association pointed out that Haryana already housed around 125 pharmaceutical units, and had a world-class cluster laboratory equipped for research and development, stability studies and advanced instrumental analysis in Karnal, so pharma park would further boost the industry.

Karnal MLA Jagmohan Anand said the government was committed to establish Pharma Park in Karnal, for which positive efforts were being made at the ground level. “Under the leadership of CM Nayab Singh Saini and guidance of Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the pharma industry will flourish in Haryana. I along with pharma manufacturers had a meeting with the minister and next week another meeting will be held with the higher authorities of the department. I promise, Karnal will soon have a pharma park which is a vision of Union Minister Khattar,” said Anand.