1,000 acres more for Genome Valley

BioAsia-2005: State govt also identifies 218 acres of land for marine biotech park in Vizag

The government of Andhra Pradesh has identified an additional 1,000 acres in the Genome Valley, on the outskirts of the city, for further expansion of the biotech cluster. The state government has also identified about 218 acres of land for the marine biotech park in Visakhapatnam.

Delivering a message on behalf of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy at BioAsia-2005, K V Rao, principal secretary (industries and commerce department), government of Andhra Pradesh, said: "Out of the total area, 101 acres is being allotted to start the third phase of the Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park and 100 acres for the Rs 125 crore National Animal Resource facility."

According to N K Ganguli, director general, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the project report for the National Animal Resource facility is ready and is under consideration.

"According to the first impression, the project report shows that the proposed facility is better than the existing animal breeding facility in Mumbai," he said.

Ganguli said that the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, has already approved Rs 20 crore and raising capital for the project was not a constraint.

"The plan for building the facility should be in place in the next 6-8 months and it would run on a corporate philosophy," he added. Ganguli also said that the National Institute of Nutrition's small animal house is also getting updated and the plans and tenders were through.

According to him, regulatory issues of making products available to the common people have not yet been tackled and needed to be addressed as soon as possible. "The regulatory issues also need to be addressed so that new developments in the area can be taken up," he added.

M K Bhan, secretary (Department of Biotechnology), Government of India, said: "There is lot of excitement being created among the people that biotechnology will solve their problems, especially in the areas of medicines and agriculture, which is sometimes scary."

According to him, the department is incrementally adding components to function more efficiently. But for this, he said, issues in the areas of intellectual property and implementation, science based regulation surrounded by public thrust and good processes, and finally a strategy in the area of innovation is required.

Bhan said that the ordinance on the intellectual property rights has already been passed and the law in this regard is expected soon. "We have achieved simplification of the regulatory processes over the last couple of months and in the next three months they would be simplified further," he said.