DoP issues brief guidelines for bulk drug parks, a detailed one to follow

The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, the Government of India has issued brief guidelines for bulk drug parks, detailed guidelines will be released soon. It has also announced the details of a financial assistance programme, including grant-in-aid to three bulk drug parks with a total incentive outlay of Rs 3000 crores for the construction of common infrastructure facilities. The proposed scheme would be implemented through a one-time grant-in-aid and will be released in various phases for the creation of common infrastructure facilities in bulk drug to a State Implementing Agency (SIA).

As per the issued notification by Navdeep Rinwa, Joint Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, the scheme proposes to provide grant-in-aid to three bulk drug parks with a maximum limit of Rs 1000 crores per bulk drug park or 70 per cent of the project cost of common infrastructure facilities, whichever is less. The notification has also mentioned that in case of hilly states and the North East Region, the grant-in-aid would be Rs 1000 crore per bulk drug park or 90 per cent of the project cost of common infrastructure facilities, whichever is less.

As per the notification, assistance under the proposed scheme will be admissible for creation of common infrastructure facilities such as solvent recovery, distillation plant, central effluent treatment plant, common logistics facilities, advanced common testing centre, regulatory awareness facility centre, emergency response centre etc.

A source close to the development informed that the government is planning to bring minimum land criteria as well. This wasn’t mentioned during the announcement of the scheme. Reportedly, from the initial discussion, the government has realised that the minimum land requirement to build each bulk drug parks would be 1600 acres.

Commenting on the brief guidelines, Dr Rajesh Gupta, a member of the Bulk Drug Park Committee, Himachal Pradesh and President, Himachal Drug Manufacturers Association (HDMA), said, “We welcome the issued brief guidelines on bulk drug parks. The Himachal Pradesh Government is very keen on setting up the bulk drug park in the State with the help of the announced scheme by the Central Government. The State government is planning to acquire approximately 1350 acres of land, it has already identified 1000 bigha land and will be exploring the possibilities to acquire more land.”

Ritu Sahay, Director-Drugs Controller, Jharkhand said, “We are reviewing the guidelines and will be discussing with the state industrial bodies.”

The Scheme Steering Committee (SSC), in the DoP, will be approving each project’s components and funding thereof will be reviewed based on the merits of the proposal.

The proposed scheme will be open for application from 2020-2021 to 2024-2025.

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