The Orissa government has decided to set up its first marine biotechnology park near Rambha in south Orissa's Ganjam district. The park would be developed in the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.
The Ganjam district administration has already identified 23.5 acres of government land for this purpose at Gokharakuda, about 40 km from here.
The state owned-Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) has initiated the process to hand over the land for the establishment of the park.
A high-level meeting was held recently at Chhatrapur, the district headquarter town to review the progress of land acquisition for different projects including the marine biotechnology park.
Priyabrata Pattnaik, chairman and managing director of Idoc said, “The marine biotechnology park would be one of the tourist destinations as it would have the data on the sea animals.”
The government has decided to set up the marine biotechnology park but the modalities are yet to be worked out, said a government official.
Gokharakuda, the site chosen for the marine biotechnology park, located near the Rushikulya river mouth is famous as the mass nesting site of the Olive Ridley turtles.
Meanwhile, Bharat Biotech International Limited, a Hyderabad-based company has been selected by the state government as a developer of the first Biotech Pharma IT Park in the state to be set up on the PPP mode.
The project estimated to cost around Rs 100 crore would be located at Andharua, near Bhubaneswar. This project is scheduled to be completed in eight years.
The state government has allotted about 54.86 acres of land to
Bharat Biotech towards the development of an integrated industrial park to attract and promote pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and IT industries.
The state government has agreed to provide all external infrastructure facilities such as road connectivity, water supply and power supply with 33 KVA sub-stations to facilitate rapid development of internal infrastructure. Within this park, a biotechnology Incubation Centre will be developed over an area of 10 acres for use by the researchers, entrepreneurs and students.
The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India has assured funding for the equipment of this 'Centre of Excellence' within the park.
