Punjab to bid for bulk drug park in Bathinda under Centre scheme

The state Cabinet gave in-principle approval to this effect at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh here.

A cabinet sub-committee will be set up to work out the details of the proposal to be made to the government of India which has laid down various criteria for the parks, including a minimum land requirement of 1,000 acres, they said.

The Centre has framed an area scoring criteria for the selection of states for setting up the parks.

According to the spokesperson of the Chief Minister''s Office, the cabinet sub-committee, comprising Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Industries and Commerce Minister Sunder Sham Arora, Revenue Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar and Housing and Urban Development Minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, has been mandated to submit a report in the next few days to enable the state to send its proposal before the last date of September 27.

The cabinet sub-committee has also been asked to examine a slew of incentives, including subsidised rates for power, effluent treatment, water steam solid waste treatment, monthly warehouse charges, monthly park maintenance charges and annual land lease charges, to get a good score in the valuation of location of the project by the Centre.

It would also make recommendations to amend the industrial policy to introduce an interest subvention scheme for the bulk drug pharma park.

An estimated cost of the project is Rs 1,878 crore, including the cost of infrastructure facilities. The government of India would grant Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 878 crore would be contributed by the state government.

The Cabinet, in an earlier meeting on June 22, had approved the transfer of 1,764 acres of land of the now defunct Guru Nanak Dev thermal power plant in Bathinda to the Punjab Urban Development Authority.

Of this, a 1,320-acre plot has been identified for the bulk drug park and the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been directed to execute the project as per the scheme of the Centre once the selection process is completed, the officials said.

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