With the Central Government's decision to re-examin the feasibility of reviving public sector drug units so as to bring down and keep a check on prices of drugs in the country, the country's first pharma PSU and the forerunner of pharma industry in Maharashtra Hindustan Antibiotics Limited is now back on its revival track.

The announcement of Union minister for chemicals and fertilizers last month was music to ears for not only the 2000 odd employees of the 54 year old company, but also for the entire state of Maharashtra, which took proud to house the erstwhile antibiotic major.

HAL, which was under the threat of a likely privatization and thereby loosing its decades old corporate identity, is currently on its own revival track as the BIFR instructed IDBI to return the earnest money of Rs 5 crore it collected from Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited along with its bidding proposal as the Union government decided against privatization.

The government has recently conveyed to the HAL management to submit its rehabilitation proposal with some modifications in a week's time to the Board. The government is learnt to have given its in-principle nod to rehabilitate the company as per this proposal as early as possible. However, the government will wait for the Board's official approval of the proposal as HAL has been a BIFR referred company since 1995.

The management proposal for HAL rehabilitation would include the payments of contingent liabilities of the company with the sale proceeds of its surplus land and also it would seek some financial assistance from the government for capital requirement among other fact based recommendations.

With the aim of bringing back Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd (HAL) on the tracks again, a task committee comprising employees and officers of HAL at Pimpri, Pune has resolved to submit a detailed plan. It may be recalled that HAL was adjudged as a sick industry by BIFR (Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction), which also issued a public notice inviting suggestions and objections to the pro-posed winding up of operations of the company.