The Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association (MADITSSIA) has urged Union minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers M K Azhagiri to take necessary steps to expedite the project of Pharma Park in the Special Economic Zone area at Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu.

MADITSSIA president N Somusundaram told Pharmabiz that seven years ago the then state government had announced that a 250 acre Pharma Park would be set up within the SEZ area. But, still the project is in the initial stage only, he said. MADITSSIA has also requested the minister to provide all the possible help of his ministry to the manufacturers who are interested to start new pharmaceutical units in Madurai also. The association is planning to bring in Pharma units from other parts of the state to Madurai.

Somusundaram said as per the plan of the Pharma Park project, around 50 large and small pharmaceutical units and around 10 allied institutions would be set up in the Nanguneri SEZ area which could generate over 2,800 jobs directly and 2,800 indirectly. Further it would export drugs estimated at about Rs 500 crore a year.

"Now the special economic zone announced for Nanguneri, especially focusing on the pharmaceutical industry, is in its incipient stage, so our association has requested the Union minister to take necessary steps to expedite the project as early as possible. The project was pending under the rule of Jayalalithaa. Even though DMK government has revived it, it is still in the nascent stage," the association president said.

To a query he said there are six Pharma manufacturing companies in Madurai, and the Association is readying for bringing more units to the district and nearby areas close to Nanguneri. He added that they had further requested the minister to pave way for large chemical and fertilizer industries from north India to come forward to start new industries in the southern districts.

The industry people have included one more demand in the memorandum to the minister that a hospital on the lines of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi should be established in Madurai too.