Severing of rail, road links bodes ill for pharma firms in Surat area

The pharmaceutical and pesticides manufacturing units located in Ankaleshwer, Bharuch and Vadodara are worried about road and rail network connection.

The road and rail network have been cut off since Wednesday afternoon and the situation is likely to deteriorate further if Surat and surrounding region continues to remain flooded for another 48 hours.

The supply of fuel is not an issue for the units in Ankaleshwer area as these units get their supply of natural gas from Ankaleshwer basin wells of ONGC through Gujarat Gas.

However, the supply of raw materials, mainly chemicals from Mumbai and other centres of Maharashtra, and supply of finished goods, is expected to be affected from Thursday onwards.

The pharma units in Vadodara region may get affected because of the Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur (HVJ) crisis as most of these units use HVJ gas line for fuel supply. Though most have dual fuel facility, not all of them are expected to source alternative fuel easily.

Kamlesh Udani, director of J B Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals and the president of Gujarat Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry Association, said apart from the marginal operational loss due to thin attendance in the offices and factories, the sector was not much affected.

"However, since the road and rail that connects Mumbai to these areas is affected severely, there will be problems like shortage of raw material and other inputs, making it difficult to run the factories for another two three days. This will result in an operational loss of about Rs 300 to 400 crore," he said.

Sources from Lupin, which has its major production plant in Ankaleshwar, said the operation is not yet affected seriously. Most of the chemical and pharma units are located in Baruch, Baroda and Ankaleshwar area.

The major pharma units in these areas are JBPCL, Lupin, Ambalal Sarabhai, Alembic, Glaxo and these districts have as many as 200 small and medium units.