The construction work of the proposed Ramky Pharma City near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh is to begin within one month and the project would be ready for by April 2005. About 65 per cent of the land will be allotted to industries, where they can build their own facilities or Ramky Group will develop facilities for the promoters. The remaining 35 per cent of area is kept for development of common infrastructure. Ramky Group will be ensuring single window facilities to all the interested corporates, M Goutham Reddy, director of the Group told Pharmabiz.

As of now, about 120 pharma companies have expressed their interest in setting up facilities in the Pharma City, of which 90 are from Andhra Pradesh. And 40 pharma companies have already paid their advances so far and booked their land, of which about 30 companies are from the State. Companies that are likely to set up their facilities are Dr Reddy's, Aurobindo Pharma, Virchow Laboratories, Suven Life Sciences, Matrix Laboratories, Hetero Drugs, Orchid Chemicals, Vasant Chemicals etc, Reddy revealed.

When asked if there are any pharma companies in Hyderabad that are shifting their facilities to Visakhapatnam, he said that pharma industry is growing at a rapid pace. All pharma companies are doing good business, and many of them are either planning to set up new facilities at the Pharma City or are establishing their expansion projects.

On the ceiling kept for pharma companies in allocating land, he said that a minimum limit of 5 acres and an upper limit of 50 acres has been kept.

The exact location of Pharma City is at Paravada, 33 kms south of Visakhapatnam. Envisioned as a facilitator to ensure hassle free production for the pharma manufacturers, the City already has obtained an in-principle clearance from the AP Pollution Control Board.

A special purpose vehicle created by Ramky for developing the site would extend regulatory support for all the required clearances. AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation is to appoint a Development Commissioner for the industrial complex to expedite clearances of all the regulatory requirements, under a single window clearance concept.

The master plan has been prepared by Jurong Consultants of JTC Corporation, a leading industrial land developer of Singapore. L & T Ramboll Consulting Engineers in association with Insignia Brooke (India) and L & T Capital Investments are the consultants to this project. Design and engineering for the project is being undertaken by Ramky Group, which has the credit of completing more than 100 major infrastructure projects.

The master plan intends to incorporate all the aspirations of the industry for setting up plants in conformity with cGMP, US FDA and other European norms in order to enable the manufacturers to launch their products in the international markets easily.

A full-fledged state-of-the-art laboratory will be set up in Pharma City to undertake simple to complex analyses. Laboratory services including testing of water, raw materials, chemicals, intermediates, drugs, all environment parameters-- air, water, soil, hazardous waste etc. will be made available. Toxicological studies, clinical trials, and bio-availability studies are also being planned. The lab will be capable of determining purity and impurity profiles of the products manufactured and activities in the lab would conform to GLP norms and ISO 17025.

The City will also have a marine outfall for disposal of treated effluents into the sea, an effluent treatment plant, a secured landfill facility for disposal of hazardous waste as per Ministry of Environment guidelines, warehouse facilities for storing raw materials and solvents, communication facilities with 1000 line telephone exchange with a broadband network to offer high speed data transmit, administrative building (including exhibition center, health clinic, mini convention center, conference/seminar hall), truck terminals, fire protection services, inland container depot, garbage and waste management, a housing project, a police station, bank, post office, petrol and diesel pumps etc.