JB Mody Group has announced that the company is all set to get into development and marketing phase of its pharmaceutical sector specific Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Panoli in Gujarat. JB SEZ has received all the required clearances that include land transfers, approvals from Ministry of Commerce and Industry and notification from the Centre.

SEZ developed by JB Mody Group is dedicated to the manufacturing of pharmaceutical finished formulations, API's and their intermediates and service activities related to research and development and contract manufacturing. The company informed that till now, the investment in the SEZ exceeds Rs 100 crore, and the entire investment benefit to the state of Gujarat is estimated at Rs 2,500 crore.

Commenting on the current status of the pharma SEZ, J B Mody, CMD of the company, said, "We have generated considerable interest from over two dozen prospective pharma companies which comprise both Indian exporters as well international firms. We are focussing our marketing in Mumbai which is the hub of such firms and our marketing partners DTZ are leading this effort."

Giving further details he said that through direct and closed sales, they already have two buyers into the project for their large-sized plots. "Thus, with good anchors in place, we now want to take the project to the next level of marketing and will soon take the project out to the open market," informed Mody.

The company informed that the SEZ land was directly acquired from GIDC and thus there is no residual issues with the local dwellers in contrast to land acquisition for several major SEZ projects in India/China. Mody said that they are increasing the 'green factor' of the area manifolds by adding water bodies and dense landscaping to the area. "We are taking care to provide a positive and green environment for housing the pharma facilities which can become a sale-point to these companies'export markets," he added.

The pharma SEZ project in Gujarat was jointly developed by the JB Mody Group, HBS Realtors who develops mega-projects in India and abroad and CPG Singapore who are known to design low-maintenance, eco-sensitive developments. Other than this, they have a real estate team from DTZ working to evolve product options to suit a variety buying needs.