The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has planned a few projects to give further boost to the pharmaceutical industry in North East region in the coming years after its successful launch of NIPER like institute there. The Department has just completed NIPER Guwahati.

Now a pharma park is coming up in the region to give a boost to the pharma aspirations in the area. The sources said that the state government of Assam and the Centre have completed the formalities to set up a pharma park in Guwahati in respect of small scale units for the manufacture of pharma products. On the grounds of existing benefits that the manufacturers could enjoy in the region, the park is expected to make a good draw of units especially those in the small scale sector, sources said.

The DoP has suggested setting up of a National Centre for Research and Development of Phyto-pharmaceuticals in the N-E region, with its advantage of having large variety of species suitable for phyto-pharmaceutical products. The work for the centre is expected to begin in the next year, as per the plans of the DoP.

However, the department has pointed out that lack of sufficient funds for the region is a bottleneck to take up new projects as planned and has requested for higher Plan outlays, against the backdrop of criticism that the NE was being neglected. The instruction from the Finance Ministry is that 10 per cent of the total Plan funds should be given to the NE region.

The Department has so far only one project --NIPER -- for the region and an amount of Rs. 10.50 crore has been released during the last financial year against the outlay of Rs 155.25 crore (reduced to Rs 105 crore at RE stage for the department). The original budget allocation was Rs 15.53 crore and it was reduced to Rs 10.50 crore at RE stage as the approval for core construction activities for the NIPER could be taken during the later period of the financial year.

This year, the department has increased the total budget allocation for the region by Rs 6 crore to be spent for extra activities other than the NIPER. The department hopes to spend more in the region in the coming years.