Punjab Minister seeks establishment of national pharmaceutical park in Bathinda
Jul 13, 2020
Chandigarh [India], July 13 : Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Monday met Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers DV Sadananda Gowda and sought the establishment of a national pharmaceutical park in Bathinda.
The Finance Minister informed the Union Minister that Bathinda is the best-positioned destination to set up a pharmaceutical park, and a tranche of 1,350 acres of land is readily available for the venture. The land has been vacated by the erstwhile Bathinda Thermal Plant.
Further, a functional railway siding and infrastructure is also available for the supply of raw materials and carriage for the pharma industry, read an official statement.
Badal also thanked Gowda for his prompt and positive response in providing an opportunity to present the case of Punjab. The Centre has already announced its intention to establish three pharmaceutical parks in the country. The Finance Minister also requested the Union Minister to depute a team to visit the site.
"The proposed park in Bathinda could cater to the entire area north of Delhi, reaching out to Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, neighbouring Rajasthan and even Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh," Badal said.
He added that the pharma ecosystem in Punjab is scalable as it is home to some of the biggest USFDA approved pharmaceutical companies like Sun Pharma, Centrient and IOL Chemicals.
The research and development ecosystem of Punjab is bolstered by the presence of ace institutes like NIPER, IISER, Institute of Microbial Research, Institute of Nano Technology and AIIMS. This will be hugely beneficial to those companies desirous of setting up business in Punjab, the statement said.
Later on, Badal had a meeting with Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Mansukh L Mandaviya and discussed various Punjab-related issues, besides conversing modalities and feasibility for the upcoming projects.
