The Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) and the Cabinet Committee on
Economic Affairs (CCEA) are likely to consider soon the revised project
estimates of making the new six National Institutes of Pharmaceutical
Education and Research (NIPER) autonomous, so that the formula and
elements of the proposed Public-Private Partnership models to run these
institutes can be finalised.

The Department of Pharmaceutical
(DoP) is learnt to have already forwarded the revised estimates as
directed by the EFC earlier. The original estimates to develop each
NIPER was Rs.200 crore but the EFC had
asked for updating the detailed project report with reference to the
2010 prices. According to the revised DPR, the project cost including
the PPP elements is coming around Rs.330 crore for each NIPER, sources said.

Consultants
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Pvt. Ltd. have been appointed by the
Department for preparation of DPR for each new NIPER and as per the
direction of the EFC, the figures had been revised by the same team. "A
meeting of the EFC is expected soon and the proposal then will be placed
for the approval of the Cabinet,'' a senior official said.

The
new NIPERs, set up at Hajipur in Bihar, Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh,
Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata in West
Bengal and Guwahati in Assam, are currently run with the help of mentor
institutes already existing in these places. The government had approved
setting up of six more NIPERs in 2007 initially for two years, which
had since been extended up to 2011. Some streams of pharmaceutical
sciences had already been started in the new institutes with the help of
the mentor institutes in the respective places.

Though the
detailed project report had suggested four types of collaboration, the
DoP is yet to make a final decision on these proposals. The Department
already had invited tenders to shortlist interested private partners
some time back. However the results of the bids are yet to be announced.