NIPER`s Rs 320 cr G'nagar campus put on back-burner

Even while the Gujarat government has provided 60 acres of land at Gandhinagar, the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Development and Research's (NIPER) new campus is unlikely to come up this year.

Delay in releasing funds from the Centre has put campus plans of the public sector pharmaceutical research arm NIPER on back-burner.

The institute currently operates from a make-shift arrangement at the Pharmaceutical Education and Research Development Centre (PERD) in Ahmedabad.

"The state government has given 60 acres of land free of cost. However, Delhi is running slow," said a highly placed source at NIPER. He added that if the construction would start within this year, it would take at least two years to complete first phase of the campus. According to initial plans, the Gandhinagar campus was expected to start operations by end of 2011.

The ministry of chemicals and fertilisers is funding the project, which has seen over Rs 320 crore investment being lined up over four years. The investment includes basic infrastructure as well as equipment for scientific laboratories among others.

NIPER's Ahmedabad centre has started taking in students since 2007, and has also started a doctoral programme from June.

Once its own campus is ready, the centre can handle over 300 students combining post-graduate and doctoral programmes.

Meanwhile, the centre is in talks with an US based medical devices company UL Laboratories for a research collaboration. "The US based diversified company has expertise in testing of medical devices. However, at present NIPER Ahmedabad has limited resources. Once the full-fledged campus comes up, it would be easier to forge a tie-up," the source said.

NIPER Ahmedabad was built with the focus on the medical devices segment. Keeping that in mind, the centre has been selected to monitor the National Center for Medical Devices (NCMD), a project taken up by the government of India.

"Work on the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) medical devices cluster at Sanand has, however, begun. We are working as a knowledge partner for the project which is jointly promoted by the government of India as well the state government. A few medical devices companies have taken up plots inside the GIDC estate at Sanand," the source said adding that NIPER would be developing a common testing facility at the cluster to help small and medium companies.