Despite the fact that the Maharashtra government has been promoting the Hinjewadi Park at Pune since 2001, the park so far has been able to attract only two occupants. In order to spruce up demand for Hinjewadi Biotech Park, its promoters are open to sell an area lower than one acre as per the need of the prospective buyer. This is against an earlier policy to sell an area equivalent to one acre or more. The Hinjewadi Biotech Park is a joint venture between The Chatterjee Group and MIDC, where the former holds 88 per cent stake and the latter 12 per cent.
"In order to attract more buyers, we are open to sell the land even as low as half an acre. Our only condition will be that the buyer should be a 100 per cent biotech company, without any pharmaceutical operations," said Aditya P. Sethi, senior manager, marketing, MIDC. "We do not want to make this park as any other biotech park. It really takes time to screen the credentials of the right company. MIDC could have completely filled the park even by 2001 end, but we took our own time. We don't want to select a wrong candidate and later feel guilty because it did not work," said Sethi.
Shreya Life Sciences with 10 acres and Emcure with 14 acres are the only players operating on the Hinjewadi land. Out of 136 acres of land, only 110 acre is developable land. Barring Shreya and Emcure's share, 85-90 acres still remain unoccupied.
It was only in 2003 the state government invited TCG as a stakeholder in the company. "MIDC was only able to sell the land. For the park to be top-class, the marketing, maintenance, regulation and policing had to be done by a professional agency having prior experience of biotechnology. That is how TCG was selected and the JV was signed in May 2003," said Sethi.
The MIDC official was reluctant to disclose the rate at which the land was sold. "We are flexible on the rates. Rates are based on the criteria like the stature of the buyer, the kind of biotech activity he will be involved in, the area in the park he is selecting etc. The rates which prevailed two years back has increased now," he said.
The rates are fixed by the TCG. The actual rate of selling will be the cost of land in addition to other infrastructure charges.
The companies operating within the park will be able to enjoy financial incentives on power tariffs, exemption on registration, electricity and stamp duty in addition to twice admissible FSI, Knowledge Processing Zone status and other incentives.