Scrapped Pharma City Due to Legal Tangles, Farmer Protests, Says Sridhar Babu

Addressing the media on the sidelines of the 21st edition of the life sciences industry event BioAsia on Tuesday in Hyderabad, he said, “The government has decided to wind up the Pharma City project keeping in view legal issues around it. Farmers’ demands and issues related to the environment too are among the reasons for not going ahead with the project.”

The Pharma City was touted as the largest pharma manufacturing cluster. However, the government is keen on promoting the pharma industry with an alternative policy to promote pharma villages across the state, Sridhar Babu said. “Each Pharma Village will be taken up in about 1,000-2,000 acres. We will talk to prospective investors and assess their land requirement,” he said.

On policy continuation, he said the Congress government would continue good policies from the previous regimes. “However, if there are any lapses and inefficiencies, we don’t mind changing them. We will continue and improve all good policies,” Sridhar Babu said.

The minister said the state government would use the Pharma City land for other purposes though no decision was taken yet on that front.

The government is expecting investments in the range of ₹22,000 crore -30,000 crore in five years in the second phase of Genome Valley, which will be expanded in 300 acre, the minister said adding that a new life sciences policy and also an MSME policy would be launched shortly to promote small industrial units for generating more employment in the state.