Kerala to set up Rs 300-crore Life Science Park

Kerala to set up Rs. 300-crore Life Science Park

The park would consist of an Incubation center and Technology Development Centre, housing biotechnology companies, drug discovery companies, outsourcing firms etc.

Monday, February 16, 2009

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA: The Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) will setup a state-of-the-art Life Science Park in Kerala, under public 'private partnership mode.' The park will come up at 260 acres of land at Veiloor Village near Thonnakkal, in Thiruvananthapuram.

The park will be a geographic cluster of industries in the field of biotechnology and nano technology, research institutions and sci-tech academia. KSIDC also envisages a separate company, to be christened Trivandrum Life Sciences Park Company, for developing the Life Science Park.

The Rs. 300-crore project would be developed under the PPP mode, with equity contribution from the Kerala Government as well as from qualified private parties.

With the proximity of Technopark, the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, ER and DC, CSIR and VSSC, the new park would assist in exploring new growth avenues for the existing and upcoming R&D institutions and the industry players.

Further, it will also be capable of addressing to the IT related needs of the rapidly emerging life sciences industry, besides attracting huge investments, both domestic and foreign, in the related areas.

The park would be developed by KSIDC as a Knowledge Centre, which consists of an Incubation Centre and a Technology Development Centre, housing biotechnology companies, drug discovery companies, pure play companies and contract research outsourcing firms with focus on human health.

Besides, the major components the Life Science Park would also comprise other facilities such as Dry and Wet Labs, Technology Transfer Cell, Computational Biology Labs, IT Center, Digital Imaging Center, Central Instrumentation Center, Virtual Reality Center, Business Center, Bio-IT Software and Database Library, Administrative Center, Intellectual Property Cell and the like.

India ranks among the top 10 biotech hubs of the world today. The biotech industry in India is confidently looking forward to reaching the 5-billion mark by 2010, which would catapult it to the club of the world's top 5 biotech hubs, said a KSIDC official.

The Indian biotechnology market has been reporting a growth rate of 36.5 percent per annum that is amongst the highest in the world. Although it currently commands a market share of just 2 percent of global revenues, India has great potential to become a significant player in the global biotech market by 2010, he added.

India already has the largest vaccine production capacity in the world and can carve a significant niche in such emerging segments as vaccines, diagnostics and clinical trials. Bio-IT services have the potential to replace or limit wet-lab experiments and speed up the generation of fresh information.

This will give a new thrust to innovations and advances in biological science.

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