KTR seeks Rs 3,000 crore central fund for Pharma City in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Information Technology and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao on Sunday demanded that the Union government provide Rs 3,000 crore grant-in-aid for the development of Pharma City in Hyderabad.

The Minister wrote letters to Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal and Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan seeking financial aid to develop Pharma City in Hyderabad.

He requested the centre to provide grant-in-aid of Rs 1,318 crore for implementation of External Infrastructure linkages and Rs 2,100 crore for the project towards Phase-1 internal infrastructure development.

The Hyderabad Pharma City project has been integrated as a priority node of proposed Hyderabad-Warangal Industrial Corridor project and feasibility study for the same has also been completed as per the NICDIT guidelines, Rama Rao said.

He said the project would be first-of-its-kind featuring state-of-the-art infrastructure, common facilities including Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) based Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP), Integrated solid waste management facility, District heating and cooling systems, Logistic Parks, Global Pharma University, Regulatory facilitation cells, Common Drug Development and Testing Laboratories, Startup/SME Hub etc.

The State government already constituted Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in the name of Hyderabad Pharma City Limited and the implementation of Phase-1 has been initiated. The overall investment potential of the project is estimated to be around Rs 64,000 crore with employment generation of 5.6 lakh jobs.

In the letter to Dharmendra Pradhan, Rama Rao said that the industrial units currently operating in Pharma sector are primarily using Coal as their fuel for generation of steam.

Given the National importance of the project, the Minister requested the centre to provide natural gas allocation on Preferential Tariff Basis and Reliable Supply for Project Operations.