As the Gujarat state government has now identified both the pharma and the biotech sector as the thrust area, the private sector infrastructure companies are keenly focusing into these areas of late. The Ahmedabad based Ganesh Housing Corporation is setting up the first ever private sector pharmaceutical park at Changodar on the Sarkhej-Bavla highway, one of the known pharma locations in Gujarat.

The project named as International Pharma & Biotech Park (IPBP), claims to be ideated to help the medium and infant pharma and biotech companies to perform at their best without any interruption in a hassle free environment.

According to Bhavin Mehta, head-business development, IPBP, the design and construction of the park is planned with a motive to encourage more ventures in the field of pharma and biotechnology.

"With all the modern amenities satisfying the global norms and international standards, IPBP offers an opportunity for the small and medium players of the bio-pharma industry to excel in innovation, production and quality, which would further enable them for a fast paced growth in a highly competitive global environment," he said.

The Park, which is coming up in total land area of 3,21,000 sq. meters, would have 45 plots of 4500 to 20000 sq. yards. Mehta said that the park connected with the natural gas grid, will be the first of its kind and it would use the alternate environment friendly resources cutting the fuel cost of the bio-pharma companies drastically. Apart from the common infrastructure features, the park would have a medical center, fire station, R&D building and common effluent treatment plant.

Since Gujarat is aiming for a slot in the biotech segment, banking on its strengths in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, the state government has identified healthcare and pharma, agricultural biotech, industrial enzymes, bioinformatics, contract research, marine and environmental biotechnology as the thrust areas in the last industrial policy. The policy recommendation includes various government level supports as well for the new ventures coming up in such industrial parks apart from the tax under central government plans.

Mehta commented that today the Indian industry is showing rocketing process in infrastructure development, technology base creation, a wide range of research, production and IT applications. "Strong scientific and technical manpower and pioneering work done in process development have contributed to this," he says.