HYDERABAD: After five months of rejecting a proposal for establishing a pharmaceutical formulations unit near Hyderabad international airport considering the safety aspect, Central government’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) has consented to the idea in its meeting held last month on June 25. With not many business opportunities coming its way, earlier this year, GMR group proposed to AC of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for amending Environmental Clearance (EC) granted in the year 2010 to its 235.85 acres of exclusive aerospace SEZ-GMR Aerospace and Industrial Park, on the premises of Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad and convert it into an EC for a multi-sector industrial SEZ, which includes hosting a pharmaceutical formulations company in an area of 40 acres.
The EAC, in its meeting last month, gave green signal to the proposal.
The reason mentioned by GMR for taking this step is that its aerospace SEZ has seen limited growth during the last six years and is presently operating at just 11 per cent occupancy. With the MoEF giving a go ahead to this amendment, the aerospace industry will just constitute 80 acres of the 235.85 acres SEZ, whereas of the remaining area, a major part would be occupied by a pharmaceutical formulations company — Citron Formulations — which will occupy 40 acres, apart from units of Gems and jewellery, electronics hardware and IT/ITeS, Commercial buildings like service apartments and banking facility, Logistics and warehousing etc.
The pharmaceutical formulations company will produce tablets (3 billion units per annum), capsules (450 million units per annum) and injectables (18 million units per annum). EAC had earlier shot down plan for pharma formulation unit on airport premisesOriginally, GMR had even proposed developing an amusement park in the SEZ apart from setting up a pharmaceutical formulation unit, but in its meeting held in January this year, the EAC deferred the proposal by shooting down both the plans. The EAC had recommended that GMR group should revise its plan and exclude pharmaceutical formulation unit and amusement park from the conversion of aerospace SEZ to multi-sector SEZ.
However, in the EAC meeting held last month, the GMR group presented its revised proposal in which it dropped the plan of an amusement park but still included the pharma formulations unit. The GMR group argued the pharmaceutical formulations unit have no sources of pollution apart from emergency diesel generator sets, boilers and hot water generators. It also said good fire detection and suppression measures will be in place, as per minutes of meeting of the EAC.
Guidelines on industrial activities around airports
With GMR planning to develop multi-sector industries around Hyderabad international airport, the EAC suggested that guidelines should be developed by MoEF as to what developmental activities can be permitted within 1 km radius of the airport and the guidelines may take into account for safety and security measures as well. The EAC also recommended that MoEF can consider even the area falling under 10km radius of airport for creating guidelines on what category of industries/activities can be permitted and that such guidelines can be prepared by MoEF through a committee comprising representatives from concerned departments including Civil Aviation Authority, Disaster Management, Town Planning, nominated members of EAC (Infra) and subject experts.