Telangana to attract investments of Rs 30,000 crore for pharmaceutical city near Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Telangana proposes to set up India's largest integrated pharmaceutical city spread over 11,000 acres near Hyderabad, complete with effluent treatment plants and a township for employees, in a bid to attract investment of Rs 30,000 crore in phases.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi-led government plans to leverage on the existing ecosystem of pharmaceutical firms in Hyderabad, which is known as the bulk drug capital of India. Hyderabad accounts for nearly a fifth of India's exports of drugs, which stood at Rs 90,000 crore in 2013-14.

A team of top executives of Hyderabad-headquartered pharmaceutical firms including Dr Reddy's, Aurobin do Pharma, Hetero Drugs and Virchow Labs accompanied Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday for an aerial survey of the proposed location at Mucherla, about 70 km from Hyderabad.

The chief minister's office said in a press release that several existing drug makers have evinced interest in setting up their greenfield projects with an employment potential for 70,000 persons in the proposed pharma city. The state government proposes to set up a pharma university and pharma research institute in the envisaged city.

Telangana industries secretary K Pradeep Chandra said most of the existing drug makers have evinced interest in the proposed pharma city.

“The government proposes to develop the pharma city in phases, with the first phase of around 2,000 acres involving an investment of around Rs 1,500 crore. We are evaluating various models for developing the infrastructure including public-private partnership (PPP) and joint venture, among others.“

“We had a fruitful visit,“ said Dr Reddy's chairman K Satish Reddy. “However, this is still at a very preliminary stage and hence individual commitments on investments were not part of discussion,“ he told ET. Finding several advantages in the location of the proposed pharma city, M Narayana Reddy, managing director of Virchow Laboratories and former president of bulk drugs manufacturers' association, said, “Proximity to Hyderabad and absence of habitats around the location that could get affected by the pollution or need rehabilitation and resettlement are among the key advantages. If the government develops the infrastructure as proposed, then not just the local drug makers but also domestic and global firms will find it an attractive destination.“