Dishman Pharmaceuticals is aiming invest Rs 200 crore for a Common Effluent Treatment (CET) plant at Bavla-Bagodara road near Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
"The effluents for the plant will be provided by the 70-80 chemical units of our special economic zones (SEZ). The project is still in a planning stage and we look forward to announce it at Vibrant Gujarat Summit," said JR Vyas, managing director of Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals.
Dishman is planning to approach Zydus Cadila and Cadila Pharmaceuticals for effluent treatment of the units coming up in their SEZs which is close to the proposed plant. Currently, it is in talks with the state government for land.
While Dishman is planning to set up its own manufacturing units spread in about 40 per cent of the total SEZ area for an investment of about Rs 700 crore in a period of five years, Sun Pharma has evinced interest for setting up API unit in about 30 per cent of the area, according to Vyas.
Dishman is looking at entering into JVs with overseas firms including Japanese firms for setting up API and specialty chemical units in the SEZ.
“We are in talks with a French company for producing X-Ray contrast media which would require an investment of Rs 200-250 crore,” according to Vyas.
The company has so far received 12 and 17 letters of intent for its pharma and engineering SEZs respectively. According to Vyas, the SEZs have caught the interest of mostly mid-sized companies who want to control their supply chain.
The company is expecting to start operations at its pharma and engineering SEZs early next year. "We have acquired the necessary land and completed all the procedures for the pharma SEZ and we expect it to commence by January while the engineering SEZ will be operational by March next year," added Vyas.
Dishman Pharmaceuticals has meanwhile completed a Rs 200 crore expansion in Bavla.
"By June 2009, we would be completing the project of setting up the world's largest high potency API manufacturing plant in Bavla. Designed, engineered and supervised by Swiss company Carbogen Amcis, the plant will be run by Swiss technocrats for three years. The plant has a capacity of six product trains which can manufacture six APIs at a time. No other plant in the world has such a facility in terms of production," added Vyas.
