First marine biotech park in Ganjam soon

The Orissa government has decided to set up the first marine biotechnology park near Rambha in Ganjam district on the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode. The Ganjam district administration has identified about 23 acres of government land for this purpose.

"The land for the proposed marine biotechnology park will be available in a fortnight”, VK Pandian, the Ganjam district collector told Business Standard.

The concept and modalities of the park would be decided by a committee set up by the state government. “The government has decided to set up the marine biotechnology park in Ganjam, but the modalities of the park are yet to be finalised. A committee would be set up by the state government to finalise the modalities for the park”, said S Raghavan, director, biotechnology, Orissa govenrment.

However, he said, the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited has been selected by the state government as a "developer" for the proposed biotech pharma IT park in the state to be set up on the PPP mode. The project being taken up at an investment of about Rs 100 crore would be developed at Andharua on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar and it is scheduled to be completed in eight years.

The state government has identified 54.86 acres of land for Bharat Biotech towards development of an integrated industrial park to attract and promote industries in sectors like pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and information technology.

“The land will be handed over to Bharat Biotech in two phases on long-term lease basis. The development of this integrated park would help kick start investments in the areas of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals in Orissa”, Raghavan added.

Bharat Biotech will float a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to develop the state-of the art park. The SPV will execute the lease cum development agreement with Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO). The government and IDCO have agreed to provide all external infrastructure facilities such as road connectivity, water and electricity supply.

A biotechnology incubation centre spread over an area of 10 acres will be set up by the state government within the park for use by researchers, entrepreneurs and students.

The department of biotechnology of the Union government has assured funding of equipment and instrumentation for this incubation centre while Bharat Biotech will develop the building and other necessar infrastructure.