The Department of Chemicals is in discussion with Uttar Pradesh and Assam state governments to establish two of the NIPER like institutes in these states, it is learnt. The Department had proposed to set up a total of six NPIER like institutes in various parts of the country.

After initiating classes in four new NIPER like institutes at Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Hajipur last year, the Ministry is consulting the UP, Assam governments on the matter of land and Mentor Institutes so that classes at these states may be started from next academic session (2008-09). The ministry is considering reputed institutions under Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) or Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to join the work with, informed official sources.

The four NIPERs commenced classes with the help of the Indian Institute of Chemicals Technology (IICT) Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Chemicals Biology (IICB) Kolkata, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) Patna and B V Patel Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research Centre (PERD) Centre, Ahmedabad as mentor institutes. The first batch of the four NIPERs includes an average intake of 31 students in each NIPERs at Hajipur, Ahmedabad and Kolkata and another 41 students at Hyderabad.

The department has also finalised criteria to appoint consultants for preparation of Detailed Project Report for each new NIPER incorporating the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. "We will be floating terms of reference for the experts within a day or two, in order to select consultants for the project report," a department official told Pharmabiz . The consultants have to cover everything for the development of the institutes, including the element for public private partnership, wherever possible and the areas of specialisation for the institutes.

Needful action would be taken with regard to creation or establishment of infrastructure, after preparation of detailed project reports. Each of the six NIPERs would take about three years time to be fully established, according to the ministry sources.

The new NIPERs would be equipped with R&D infrastructure of international standards and having various specializations suited to the upcoming needs and the students can get acquainted with the cutting edge technology to meet the newer challenges of the industry. The intake of students in various NIPERs is proposed to be about 200-250 each and after all the seven NIPERs (including the well established one in Mohali) become functional, the institutes can offer about 1500 highly skilled trained manpower to pharma industry annually.

The government has estimated around Rs 200 crore as the cost of establishing each NIPER. However, the central government also demands approximately 100 acres land from the respective state government for free of cost to set up the institutes.