Govt plans infrastructure at BBN area

“If the bulk drug park is allotted to Himachal, the state will emerge a hub of production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and drug intermediates in the country, catering to the needs of the drug industry,” Jai Ram Thakur, CM

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Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 29

The government is planning to create infrastructure in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area so that industrial workers could be accommodated in an emergency situation, said Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur while interacting with members of the CII Northern Region Committee on Life Science and Biotech/Pharma Industry through video-conferencing from Shimla today.

He said the basic infrastructure in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area would be strengthened to facilitate industrialists as well as workers. Over 90 per cent pharma units had started production and hydroxychloroquine, manufactured at Baddi, was being supplied to the US, he stated.

The government has decided to allow free movement with a few restrictions on the workers coming from other places to the BBN area, he said and added that Himachal had emerged as a hub for manufacturing of bulk drugs and captured a major portion of the market within the country.

The Centre had been urged to establish a bulk drug park in the state, preferably at the BBN area in Solan district, Thakur said.

The CM urged the Centre to relax the condition of land requirement to about 300-400 acres from 1,600 acres for establishing a bulk drug park, keeping in view the geographic conditions of the state. In a letter written to Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, Thakur said Himachal Pradesh was in the forefront of growth of the pharma industry and it might not be possible to provide such a huge piece of land at one place.

“If the bulk drug park is allotted to Himachal, the state will emerge a hub of production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and drug intermediates in the country, catering to the needs of the drug industry,” he said.