Biotech Clusters of India

Biotech industry has developed around a few clusters. The presence of research institutes, quality educational institutes and pharma industry has fuelled the start of biotech sectors in these clusters. To further fuel the biotech activity, each of these clusters has started biotech parks. Several state governments are taking positive steps in this direction. Read on the cluster activity ....

Punjab

The nucleus of the biotech research in the region is The Institute for Microbial Technology (IMTECH), which was set up in Chandigarh in 1984 to take up research in microbial bioprocessing and the Central Scientific and Industrial Organization (CSIO), which develops a number of biotech based diagnostic kits. The state is developing a biotechnology park in the suburbs of Chandigarh . Also the Department of Science & Technology, Chandigarh Administration, CSIO and IMTECH have tied up to establish incubation facilities for biotech and bioinformatic companies at the premises of these institutes.

Punjab Biotech Park
Punjab Biotech Park project is a joint effort by Beckons Industries Ltd and Punjab State Council for Science & Technology (PSCST). This park is a public- private partnership venture.

The focus is on catalyzing the SMEs to come to the cluster and join hands to set up environment friendly biotechnological enterprises. As per the agreement, Beckons Industries Ltd will make 70 percent of total investment and the state government would contribute the rest 30 percent. The total cost on creating a suitable infrastructure is estimated to be Rs 100 crore.

The inimitability of this biotech park is involvement of foreign experts in it. An MoU with the Canadian Biotech Mission has been signed. The facilities to be created in this park also include establishment of biotech incubator to meet R&D, pilot testing, and demonstration and validation facilities for the industry. Around 15 companies have evinced their interest to set shop in the park. Ranbaxy, Panacea Biotec and Dr Morepen are some of the big companies who expressed their interest in the project. PSCST will act as a single window for establishing any biotech business at this park.

CEO: Gurmeet S Bhatia
Biotech Area: 13 Acre
Address: Association Bhawan, Bay no. 143-144, Industrial phase 7, Mohali – 160 055
Tel.: +91-172-2236576
Fax: +91-172-2236948

Rajasthan

Rajasthan is another state which is concentrating on promoting the biotechnology industry. Rajasthan Industry Investment Corporation, Government of Rajasthan has initiated three biotech parks projects. These would be located in Sitapura-Jaipur; Boranada- Jodhpur; and Sotanala on NH-8 near Behror (Alwar). Necessary common facilities such as incubators and R&D centers will be set up there for encouraging the private sector.

BioTech Park at Sitapura-Jaipur
The Biotech Park project at Sitapura, Jaipur, is an initiative of RIICO. The Park is located on Jaipur, Kota national highway, just 4 km away from the airport and about 15 km from the city center. The size of the developed plots ranges from 1000 sq.mtrs to 20,000 sq.mtrs.
Area: 30 acres

Biotech Park at Boranada, Jodhpur
RIICO has developed another biotech park in an area of about 30 acres at Boranada near Jodhpur. About 22 plots have been developed in the park. The sizes of the plots range from 1500 sq.mtrs to 20,000 sq.mtrs.
Area : 30 acres

Bio Tech Park at Bhiwadi (Alwar)
The third biotech park is in an area of about 43 acres at Chopanki (Bhiwadi). About 14 plots have been developed in the park.
Area: 43 acres

Address: RIICO Ltd, Udyog Bhawan,
Tilak Marg, Jaipur – 302 005
Tel.: +91-141-5113225
Fax: +91-141-5104804

Lucknow

Lucknow's biotech activity is spearheaded by National Botanical Research Center (NBRI), Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Industrial Technology Research Center (ITRC) and the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI).

Biotech Park Lucknow
This park is being set up involving the Uttar Pradesh unit of Confederation of Indian Industries, the state government and Council of Scientific & Industrial Research. DBT is amongst the major agencies behind the development of the park and city.

The Park would focus on health care, agriculture, environment and environmental technologies. The Biotech Park would offer GLP/GMP compliant facilities. The project is surging smoothly into the second phase of development. The construction of the bio-business center and pilot plant facilities for upscaling of the lead molecules, tissue culture, distillation plant and vermicomposting are in full swing.

The project cost has been estimated at Rs 18.7 crore. Another biotech park will soon be set up in the campus of the Remote Sensing Application Center of the Department of Space. It will have industrial modules and bio-business center and training laboratories.

Area: 8 acre

CEO: PK Seth
Address: Biotech Park, Near Remote Sensing Application Center Campus, Sector G, Janki Puram, Kursi Road Lucknow - 226 021
Tel.: +91-522–2365050
Fax: +91-522-2365755
Website: www.biotechcitylucknow.org

Mumbai –Pune biotech highway

Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad are the three important locations for the biotech companies in Maharashtra. The work on setting up pharma Biotech Park at Hinjewadi near Pune is already under process.

International Biotech Park, Pune
International Biotech Park (IBP) is a public-private partnership project. IBP is a joint venture project between Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and TCG Urban Infrastructure Holding Ltd (TCGUIH) (a Chatterjee Group Company). With a total investment of Rs 250 crore in the project, MIDC will hold approximately 12 percent of the paid-up capital while TCGUIH will hold the remaining 88 percent. TCGUIH will develop, promote and market the 110-acre park at Hinjewadi, near Pune. The MoU to this effect was signed on 14 November 2003.

The IBP will be developed along the lines of other international biotech parks. It will offer the finest in terms of infrastructure and other facilities such as core shared facility, medico clinical research facility, business facilitation center, common effluent treatment plant, etc. IBP also signed MoU with IBM Business Consulting Services that provides strategic inputs that are critical for the development of the park. Emcure has already commenced the formulation process while Shreya Life Sciences has taken up land at the park. TCS, a leading software company, is also considering setting up its bioinformatics unit there.

CEO: Balaji Rao
Area: 110 acre
Address: TCG Urban Infrastructure Holdings Ltd, 304, Enterprise center, Vile Parle (East), Mumbai – 400 099.
Tel.: +91-22-26172555. Fax: +91-22-56772575

Gujarat

The government is considering setting up a Biotech Park at Vadodara for which the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) has earmarked 90 hectares at Salvi near Vadodara. GIDC is looking at private partnership for developing, promoting and marketing the park.

International Pharma & Biotech Park, Ahmedabad
The Ganesh Housing Corporation Ltd, an ISO 9001-2000 company based in Ahmedabad is developing International Pharma & Biotech Park (IPBP) at the pharma corridor. The Corporation has already acquired 32 acres of land at the Sarkhej-Bavla highway considered as the pharma corridor of Gujarat. It is investing $3 million (Rs 15 crore) in this project, which will house about 50 SMEs. Rajasthan based Skymax Labs has taken 54,000 sq yards at the park. Discussions are on with another 10-12 companies. The first phase of the park will be completed by December 2005.

It is discussing with Reliance for providing telecommunication facility and also having a discussion with government of India to get single window clearance facilities to the companies based out of the park. The IPBP will also provide cold storage, common R&D facility, and normal quality control center hotel/training facility. The park will have common state of art R&D center would accommodate and encourage newer and efficient inventions.

CEO: Shekhar Patel
Area: 32 acres
Address: Ganesh Housing Corporation Ltd, Ist floor, Samudra Complex, CG Road, Ahmedabad – 380 086
Tel.: +91-79-6562345/6560226/6561350
Fax: +91-79-6421085

Andhra Pradesh

The pharma capital of South India, Hyderabad, has made its presence in biotechnology very strong in the recent years. The city is leveraging on its inherent strengths in the pharma sector and leading biotechnology research centers. Hyderabad has a Genome Valley. A Rs 30-crore incubator with all the infrastructure facilities and sophisticated instruments required for biotech research is coming up here. To facilitate cutting edge research, the Indian Council of Medical Research is setting up an Animal Test Facility as part of the National Bio Resources Research Institute. There is more. A Marine Biotech Park (218 acres) is coming up in Visakhapatnam.

ICICI Knowledge Park
ICICI Knowledge Park is located in Turkapally. The Park is adjacent to the upcoming Shaoorji Pallonji Biotech Park being developed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh to house the production units of biotech companies. This entire area is known as the genome valley.

The park is situated in a 200-acre campus and is developed jointly by ICICI, a premier financial institution, and the Andhra Pradesh government. It offers quality research facilities through modern modular lab units, customized research centers and pilot plants. It is developing a unique interactive Knowledge Network for facilitating academic, research institutions and industry partnership of which the virtual information center is a key component and is closely interacting with 20 key academic and R&D institutions. It has an integrated IPR facilitating cell.

Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park
This is a joint venture project between Shapoorji Pallonji Co. Pvt Ltd and Andhra Pradesh government. It is spread over 400 acres in the Genome Valley, Hyderabad and is equipped with facilities to develop a product right from the "lab to market". A biotech incubator with lab facilities for R&D is coming up and will have a pilot plant for scale-up and downstream processing. It will serve as a Business Enterprise Zone for manufacturing biotech products.

Several benefits have been on offer to the users of the park. They are charged a nominal sales tax of 1 percent for seven years for "high-end" biotech products manufactured by units in the park. Further units in the park would get priority for allocation of the funds from the Biotechnology Development Fund and park users would enjoy waiver of stamp duty and registration charges for their land and building transfers, in the first instance only.

CEO: S Dhawan
Address: No. A-13, Ground Floor, Street No.3, Indian Airlines Colony, Begumpet, Secunderabad - 500 003. Tel.: +91-40-27900893 Fax: +91-40-27901428/2009. Website: www.spbiotechpark.com

Karnataka

The nation's largest bio-cluster is located in Bangalore. The city is the home to the country's largest biotech company, Biocon, several research centers run by multinational companies and some of the country's top biotech research institutions.

Over 32,000 students are pursuing biotech related courses in over 400 colleges affiliated to Bangalore University.

Bangalore Biotech Park
The Bangalore biotechnology park will be a reality soon as there has been a major pitch for the Bangalore biotech park in the recent few months. About 100 acres of land has been acquired in the Electronics city and initiatives are being taken to develop it as a biocluster, where inter-dependent biotech companies would be encouraged to set up operations. The state government has announced allocating Rs 10 crore towards development of incubation centers and house two leading institutes. About 10 acres of land has been earmarked for IBAB (the bioinformatics institute), Center for Human Genetics, and an incubation center, which will provide the intellectual inputs for the biotech park. These three will be under our umbrella.

Bangalore has the capacity to take nearly Rs 2,400 crore in investment in five years and the Bangalore biotech park will be developed over a period of five years. The government is calling for the expression of interest by companies to develop that. It will be a joint venture. The biotechnology park will be operational within a year.

CEO: MK Shankaralinge Gowda, secretary, Dept of IT & BT
Address: Government of Karnataka, No 9, III Floor, UNI Building, Thimmaiah Road, Bangalore - 560 052.
Tel.: +91-80-22262466/22262450
Fax: +91-80-22288341

Kerala

The God's Own Country, buoyed by the global attention as a tourist hot spot, is making a splash into the biotech arena on the back of its strengths in the traditional medicine system Ayurveda and its rich biodiversity. Kerala is one of the 12 designated global biodiversity hotspots. Over 700 species of flora and fauna can be found per sq km, and a wide variety of aquatic species can be found in the State's territorial waters.

KINFRA
Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) is a statutory body that facilitates the development of industrial infrastructure. So far 16 theme-based industrial parks have been started in Kerala.

Amongst its new initiatives is a biotechnology park. KINFRA is in the process of setting up biotechnology parks. The biotech parks are scheduled to come up at two locations-Thiruvanathapuram and Kochi. KINFRA has in possession about 240 acres of land at Kalamassery and a master plan would be prepared to accommodate this as biotech zone. At Kalamassery, 50 acres of land will be developed for a business enterprises zone for housing industrial units. The Park would be a combination of a technology incubation center, providing modules for R&D in biotechnology, pilot plant and a business enterprise zone comprising developed plots to be utilized for setting up of industrial units. Ernst & Young has been selected as the consultant for assisting KINFRA in finding Joint Venture Partner for developing biotechnology parks at Thiruvanathapuram and Kochi and market the parks.

CEO: Dr GC Gopala Pillai
Address: Kerala Industrial Infrastucture Development Corporation, Kinfra House, TC 31/2312, Sasthamangalam , Thiruvananthapuram – 10
Tel.: +91-471-2726585s
Fax: +91-471-2724773
Website: www.kinfra.com

Tamil Nadu

Chennai has been an early adopter of biotechnology. Chennai's biotech showpiece, the $13 million (Rs 62.5 crore) TIDCO Center for Life Sciences (TICEL Bio Park). The government would also set up a Marine Biotechnology Park at Mamallapuram with an investment of Rs 50 crore to offer unique incubating facilities for commercial exploitation in pharmaceuticals, food supplements and cosmetics. Besides, the Golden Jubilee Biotech Park for Women Society set up on the outskirts of Chennai is the first Park in India exclusively for women entrepreneurs in biotechnology.

TICEL Bio Park Ltd
TIDCO Center for Life Sciences (TICEL Bio Park), set up in 5 acres of land in Chennai at a capital outlay of Rs 62.5 crore, has become operational.

TICEL Bio Park is located at about 14 km from the international airport and 16 km from Chennai seaport.

The biotech park has two major facilities, the bio-resource center and a common tenancy area. The bio-resource center has wet labs that are equipped with the latest equipment to facilitate high quality research in fermentation and microbiology, molecular biology, plant tissue culture, downstream processing and analysis. Besides the park also features customized lab facility, greenhouse facility and training center. Then there is the bioinformatics infrastructure with remote access to supercomputer at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for high performance computing.

The tenancy area has 72 modules of 915 sq.ft each for clients to develop their own customized R&D labs of BSL2 standards, upgradeable to BSL3, in accordance with GLP standards.

CEO: KR Vishwanathan, Ticel Biopark
Address: Taramani Road, Taramani, Chennai - 600 113
Tel.: +91-44-22542060/61
Fax: +91-44-22542055
Website: www.ticelbiopark.com

Mahindra Industrial Park
Promoted by the Mahindra Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), Mahindra Biotech Park is located within a larger entity of 1400 acres business city, Mahindra City, compares with the best business parks in the world. Mahindra City, which is India's first business city has been masterminded by Ascendas and landscaped by Belt Collins of Singapore from concept to strategy implementation. The park is a blend of industry and lifestyle.

The Biotech Zone offers large tracts of land set in a scenic surround of hills, lakes and lush green. The lay out provides for 45 meter (6-lane carriageway), 31 meter (4-lane carriageway) and 24 meter (3-lane carriageway) with sufficient provision to accommodate footpaths and service lines. The "Plug and Play" cluster within the park is a cluster of mix use with facilities from service providers, healthcare, educational institutions and housing arrangements in various configurations.

CEO: BG Menon
Address: Arjay Apex Center, 1st Floor, 24, College Road, Chennai - 600 006
Tel.: +91-44-28212893-94
Fax: +91-44-28212895
Website: www.mahindracity.com