The Maharashtra government will set up a 5,000-acre pharmaceutical park in the coastal Raigad district. The land acquisition process has been notified with the office of the District Collector, a senior state government official told BusinessLine .
The park would be set up by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), the main industrial development arm of the State government.
P Anbalagan, CEO of MIDC, said that out of the total land parcel, about 700 acres is already owned by the State government. If the acquisition process for the rest runs smoothly, then the ground-breaking could happen in early 2021.
The park will come up near the town of Roha, and will primarily focus on units making bulk drugs. It will have common facilities such as sewage treatment plants and industrial boilers, which will provide steam to all the plants for pharmaceutical processing. The common infrastructure is expected to cost over ₹2,000 crore, Anbalagan said.
The park will be a zero discharge site for major hazardous waste. Townships will also be developed for the people working in the park. The site has been selected in such a manner that upcoming Navi Mumbai airport and seaports such as Dighe and JNPT are within 100 km reach. The Maharashtra Industries Department and MIDC already have sent a project proposal to the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers for setting the park, the CEO of MIDC said.
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Nanar refinery reports
Anbalagan said that news reports stating that Nanar refinery site in Ratnagiri district has been chosen for the pharma park are speculative in nature.
A senior Maharashtra Government officer also confirmed with BusinessLine that there is no plan to set up a pharma park at the Nanar refinery site in the coastal Ratnagiri district. That land has been already been denotified by the MIDC.
The Nanar refinery site was to be the largest public sector oil refinery, but the land acquisition process was cancelled by the Thackeray government over the fear of marine pollution and massive local opposition.