The Chhattisgarh Government has decided to establish a bio-technology park with an objective to promote setting up of biotechnology units and generation of more employment opportunities.
Twenty three hectares of land has been acquired in village Mungi of Aarang block in Raipur district for this park. Sum of `1 crore have been provisioned for this in the budget of new fiscal year 2017-18.
Agriculture and Bio-technology Minister Brijmohan Agrawal informed that this Park will be equipped with incubation centre, central facility lab and testing centre, and training and entrepreneurship centre.
Developed land will be made available to the investors for setting up agriculture and environment based industries, he said.
Bio-tech industries includes industries related to agriculture inputs, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, drug discovery and diagnostics used in tissue culture, medicinal and aromatic industries, seed industries, nursery based industries, bio-fertilizer, bio-pesticide, bio-leeching, and organic farming, the Minister said.
Agrawal informed that presently, two acres of land have been allotted to Indira Gandhi Agriculture University campus in Raipur to establish incubation cum training centre.
He informed that action plan of `43.77 crore has been chalked out for this Park, implementation of which will begin from new financial year.
The Minister while addressing the first meeting of Chhattisgarh Biotech Promotion Society in December last year said that there is tremendous scope of boosting employment opportunities in the Biotechnology sector.
In June last year, the Minister had informed that the Chhattisgarh Government is in the process of drafting a ‘Biotechnology Policy’.
Notably, Biotechnology experts from across the country are involved in preparing an action plan in Raipur for Biotechnology initiatives, Agrawal had stated said while chairing a meeting of eminent biotechnology experts at Indira Gandhi Agriculture University (IGAU) here.
The Minister during the meeting had stated that biotechnology could be used for enhancing agriculture productivity as well as conserving the environment.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is among five other states in the country which have sent proposal for setting up a Biotechnology Park, the Central Government informed.
The Central government’s Department of Biotechnology has re-constituted an Expert Committee to examine and to recommend proposals for setting up of new Bio-technology Parks, officials informed.
The Committee looked into the proposals received by the Department and suggested to get the project proposals of the States of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh revised, they informed.
The Committee has recommended for in-principle approval for setting up of two Bio-Technology Parks in the State of Jammu & Kashmir.
Notably, the Central Government proposes to establish more bio-technology parks in the country.
Several State Government / Central Institutes have submitted proposals for setting up of Bio-technology Parks in States like Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, officials informed