The ayurveda cluster developers in Nashik are upset over the lackadaisical attitude of the Department of Ayush towards their request for an extension of time for submitting the project report for the cluster project. In spite of repeated representations, the department has not responded to the developers so far. As per department proposal, the last date for submitting the project report came on August 31.

Disappointed over this apathetic attitude, the developers are on the verge of cancelling their long cherished dream of developing the cluster in Nashik which would have brought common manufacturing, testing and marketing facilities for the benefit of the ayurveda drug manufacturers to meet the quality standard.

Sources said that the cluster developers in Nashik have been asking the Ayush department to extend the last date for submitting the project report from August 31 by a month or two as they are finalising the report. They attributed the delay in making the project report to the authorities because the department asked for more details of the developers such as three years balance sheet, three years IT returns, etc on August 9 just some days before the last date.

Since then four letters were written to the department requesting them to extend the last date. But, all our requests fell on deaf ears of the authorities as they simply did not respond at all, sources regretted.

As per the proposal, the cluster in Nashik was to be established at an estimated cost of Rs 7.3 crore and of which the department of Ayush will provide Rs 4.21 crore. The promoters, the manufacturers, have to collect Rs 1.20 crore and the rest will be taken as term loan from a bank. After giving the in-principle approval, the Ayush department has asked the manufacturers to come up with detailed proposals.

Under its ambitious Rs 110-crore pilot 'Cluster Scheme' project to set up 25 clusters, the Ayush department has so far received five proposals, one each from Nashik, Pune and Kokan in Maharashtra, Trissur in Kerala and one in Orissa.

The clusters will be useful to the ayurveda manufacturers, especially the small and medium manufacturers who cannot afford to establish costly advanced facilities on their own, as there will be all types of common facilities in the clusters. With the government shifting its focus on quality, the clusters will go a long way in upgrading the quality of ayurveda products in the country.

The common manufacturing facilities which will be established in the cluster included common tablet coating machines, extraction machines and packaging machines like blister packing and strip packing. The common testing facilities included common identification testing and qualitative testing. There will be advanced technological facilities for analysing the products such as gas chromatographers, HPTLC, and atomic absorption machines for heavy metal testing.