The sprawling Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City being set up at Parawada in Visakhapatnam will be ready by April 2006. Paravada is situated 31km south-west of Visakhapatnam city. Conceived by former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, the project is being vigorously pursued by the present Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.

Dr K S M Rao, managing director, Ramky Pharma City (India) Ltd, developers of the Pharma City, told Pharmabiz that it was now certain that by April 2006 many of the drugs and pharmaceutical units would start their operations from the Pharma City. L V Subramanyam, IAS, vice-chairman and managing director, Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, equity holders of the Pharma City, also expressed the confidence that all plans were going on as scheduled.

A Ayodhya Rami Reddy, chairman, Ramky Group, who also spoke briefly to Pharmabiz, said that everything was going on smoothly "as we planned and we hope the Pharma City will be completed on schedule." He said the total cost of developing the project was over Rs 300 crore.

Dr Rao said the project had already crossed the main hurdle of "consent for establishing" the Pharma City from the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board. The Pollution Control Board, after conducting a public hearing under the aegis of the District Collector, gave the consent for establishing the project. Later it was sent to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, for the Environmental Clearance. "A comprehensive presentation on the proposed city has been made before the concerned ministry officials and we are expected to get the environmental clearance any time now," Dr Rao said.

Ramky will have a shareholding of 89 per cent while the state government will hold the remaining 11 per cent shares.

The Pharma City has been conceived to be the country's first product specific industrial theme park to house bulk drug, pharmaceutical and allied chemical manufacturing industries. It is being developed and marketed by the Ramky Pharma City on a BOT basis. Ramky will operate it for 70 years with APIIC as the equity holders.

Dr Rao said that it would be for the first time in the country that a Pharma City was coming up with a common effluent treatment plant and a hazardous waste disposal factory. The park would be monitored by a park level authority under an officer of the rank of Development Commissioner. This Authority would act as a liaison between the industries and the government for quick clearances of certain necessary formalities.

The Pharma City will be run by a governing body consisting of one-third members from the industries, one-third from the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the rest one-third from the developers. Dr Rao said the APIIC had the equity and they were the partners in progress.

One of the biggest pharma cities in Asia, the Visakhapatnam Pharma City is 1400 acres in area of which 1000 acres will be ready before April 2006. Dr Rao said that 850 acres had already been sold out, while 400 had been set apart for a "Special Economic Zone" for bulk drug manufacturing. He said many MNCs were evincing keen interest for setting up their units in the City. Besides the excellent infrastructure, they were happy with the facilities available at the nearby Andhra University and the presence of several industries.

Minister for Major Industries Botcha Satyanarayana, under whose constitutency, Paravada, the Pharma City is coming up, said that the Visakhapatnam airport would also be upgraded and renovated within a year with night-landing facilities. The airport will have runways to accommodate bigger aircraft also. This will be an added attraction for the MNCs for establishing their units in the new Pharma City.

Yet another speciality of the Pharma City is that one kilometre around the Pharma City had been declared a 'no development zone' so that there would not be any scope for future complaints about pollution. Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy had made an announcement in this regard when he visited Visakhapatnam recently.

Dr Rao said the pharma units would not face any hurdles as far as pollution clearances were concerned since it would be done on cluster basis. He said the Pharma City would have a captive power plant in an area of 53.58 acres. It would also utilise the Paravada Balancing Reservoir. The City has provisions for its own helipad.

An agreement was recently signed between Ramky Pharma City and the Bulk Drug Manufacurers Association under which the BDMA will purchase 400 acres from Ramky to set up bulk drug industries in the Special Economic Zone.

Asked about their experience in establishing and operating such huge projects, Dr Rao said Ramky had been making forays into the infrastructure sector and many of these projects had been on BOO/BOOT/BOT basis. He said one such mega project was the country's first "Inter-State Bus Terminus" project on BOT basis at Dehradun at an investment of Rs 20 crore.

The Master Planning for the Pharma City was carried out by Jurong Consultants of JTC Corporation, the largest industrial land developer in Singapore. L&T Ramboll Consulting Engineers Ltd in association with Insignia Brooke (India) Pvt Ltd and L&T Capital Investments are consultants to this project on matters of technical assessment, initial master planning to APIIC.

Explaining the other special features in the Pharma City, Dr Rao said there would be uninterrupted power supply, 24 hours quality water supply, excellent road connectivity, warehousing and communication facilities, an effluent treatment plant and hazardous waste disposal.