Speaking to reporters in Chennai on Saturday, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said the upcoming vaccine unit and the medical park, along with a medicity and research and development (R&D) centre, would centralise the vaccine production in the country.
The facility will be constructed in accordance with the global standards. The first phase of the facility, which will include the vaccine manufacturing unit, is likely to commence in another two years.
He said the ministry had 400 acres of land in Chengalpattu, of which 200 acres would be used for the vaccine park and the remaining for the medical park.
"The government-owned facility will require only 100 acres and the remaining will be open for private players," the minister said. However, the private players will have to use 70 to 80 per cent of the produce for domestic consumption.
Commenting on the cancellation of the licences for three vaccine-manufacturing public enterprises under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, he said they were ordered to suspend production for non-compliance with good manufacturing practice (GMP), which is a basic norm under the Indian Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Act of 1945.
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The units that were asked to suspend production include the 103-year-old Central Research Institute at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, 100-year-old Pasteur Institute of India at Coonoor in Tamil Nadu and the 60-year-old BCG Vaccine Laboratory in Chennai.