BT Parks - North

Lucknow: The Catalyst For UP

The setting up of the Bt park in Lucknow has boosted the biotech activity in the State

The Lucknow Biotech Park was jointly setup by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and Department of Science and Technology, Government of Uttar Pradesh in collaboration with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi; Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; local universities and industries. It is a technology incubator plus model. The park buildings were completed in July 2006 and in a few months time all available constructed space and available land has allocated to entrepreneurs.

While states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat have taken a great lead in biotechnology, UP is comparatively new in their comparison. However, the setting up of the park has boosted the biotech activity in the state. The companies in the park are utilizing the common facilities as per their requirements. The park is playing a major role in providing them advisory and consultancy services. Nextgen- Biofertilizers and Aroma Products have expanded their activity outside the park in biofertilizer. Similarly the park has paved the way for launching of two new companies - Green Oil, New Delhi and U.P. Bioenergy Pvt. Ltd, Lucknow outside the park in the area of biofuel energy.

The park plays an important role in the initial establishment of the startup companies by providing information about possible business avenues based on the facilities set up at the incubator center of park, sourcing of technologies and state of the art facilities available with various national R&D institutions, Universities and medical institutions, provides access to expertise available with renowned and accomplished scientists. It also provides them information about the facilities and incentives available under the Government of India and state government biotech policies, availability of special grants, schemes and loans as well as information about requirements for registration and obtaining IPR.

Expansion Plans

The future plans of park includes, constructing more ready to use laboratories keeping in view the high demand from new start up companies; setting up of a commercial solvent extraction plant for obtaining lead molecules in a public private partnership mode; setting up common facilities of safety evaluation and toxicity testing, analytical facility for food processing industries in public-private partnership; establishing new protocols for high yielding varieties of the Jatropha curcas plants and providing good planting material with particular emphasis on Jatropha and Banana; providing industrial biotechnology training in areas of molecular biology, bioinformatics, human DNA banking, agribiotechnology and providing Agri Biobusiness opportunities for rural development.