The Telangana state government has initiated steps to establish pharma city in Hyderabad. As part of its initiative, the state government has already appointed international consultancy for preparing a comprehensive plan, including a complete report on the environmental issues.

The government has also ordered the Telangana State industrial infrastructure corporation (TSIIC) and department of industries to conduct land survey and demarcate 11000 acres for the pharma city on the borders of Ranga Reddy and Mahabubnagar districts about 70 kilometers from Hyderabad. Very soon the government is also expected to release funds to TSIIC for development of infrastructure facilities in the pharma city.

As announced earlier, the Telangana state government is planning to shift all the bulk drug, formulations and biotechnology companies to the ‘Pharma city’ on the outskirts of Hyderabad city and has allocated required land for establishing an exclusive cluster for the pharmaceutical sector in the state. As part of this initiative the government is taking all precautions and taking into confidence, the opinion leaders, the pharma industry, the regulators and the environmentalists so that there should not be any problem during the environmental and industrial clearance from the central government.

At present the pharma industry in the state is concentrated in and around Hyderabad city. All the major pharma hubs are located within a radius of about 10-20 kilometers from the city centre. This has created a lot of problems with regard to management of environment. Many bulk drug and formulations companies have to face notices and warnings from the pollution control board as they have been flaunting environmental norms.

Moreover the industry had to face judicial ban by Supreme Court and were not allowed to expand or increase production capacity for over 15 years because of which Telangana state had to lose a lot of industrial opportunity. “Due to lack of proper pharma policy, the earlier governments had neglected the industry. The pharma sector though had a great beginning; it could not move beyond expected levels during the past 10 years. But with this government’s initiative, one can hope better future for pharma industry and the new industrial policy of single window clearance adopted by this government will definitely attract more investments in this segment, informed an industry expert.

According to sources in the industries department, the government has appointed leading internationally experienced consultancies like Jurong and ILFS for carrying out land survey.

Apart from ordering the industries department to prepare a draft schedule for the project, the government has also appointed L & T Rambal for preparing a comprehensive report on environmental issues that may come in the way of the project clearance. Accordingly the government is preparing guidelines and is expected to submit a complete report to the central government on the pharma city project for its final approval.