Centre urged to expedite setting up of Pharma City 

KTR meets Nirmala Sitharaman in Delhi and urges her to address issues for seamless growth of Telangana

• State govt has identified 14,000 acres for setting up the Pharma City
• Says that an assistance of at least `1,500 crore is required as against the proposed 200 crore
• Seeks support for the Textile Park in Warangal too
• Seeks “necessary hand holding arrangement” from the Centre in establishing dry ports in the State

New Delhi: Minister for Industries and IT K Taraka Rama Rao has urged Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman to speed up the setting up of the Pharma City in the Telangana State.

KTR who met the Union Minister in New Delhi on Monday, said that an assistance of at least Rs 1,500 crore was required for setting up the Pharma City as against the promised assistance of Rs 200 crore. He said the proposed 14,000 acres identified by the State government for the purpose would ensure the zone to be bulk drugs capital of the country.

KTR sought support for the Textile Park in Warangal too, adding that there would be textile clusters additionally and this also required infrastructure support from the Centre. Telangana needed a new export zone and the appointment of an independent development commissioner for the smooth functioning of SEZs was necessary, he said.

KTR sought the “necessary ‘hand holding arrangement’ from the Centre in establishing dry ports in the land locked State.” In addition, two multi-purpose SEZs along with the dry ports being planned by the government also required Centre’s help, he said. He also sought clarity on labour laws for these SEZs.

Telangana needed a new export zone and appointment of an independent development commissioner for the smooth functioning of SEZs was necessary, he said. He also sought some sort of freight equalisation from the Centre for exporters from Telangana where the additional liability on account of the additional transport cost could be neutralised.

The issue of establishment of Hyderabad Trade Centre, in collaboration with Indian Trade Promotion Organisation and the Ministry of Commerce, on the lines of the Chennai Trade Centre and the Bengaluru Trade Centre was also raised by him. With the likelihood of Telangana State making it to the toppers list of World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ this year, KTR sought to impress upon the Union Minister on the necessity to sort out some hurdles being faced by the State government.

Seeking her Ministry's intervention, KTR said that unless these issues were addressed at the earliest, seamless growth of Telangana would not be possible. The TRS government was dedicated to making Telangana a leading and an integral part of the ongoing “Make in India” campaign, he said, thanking the Department of Commerce and the Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy (DIPP).

He said necessary due diligence should be ensured in this regard so that questions not actually applicable to the State should be kept out than merely accepting the State's claims. He said it had been brought to the notice of DIPP & World Bank that some of the reforms like e-courts depended on direct funding from the Centre He pointed out to her that the portal meant to update viewers on the status of ‘Ease of Doing Business’ was also not updated in the last three weeks.

The Minister urged Nirmala Sitharaman to develop Hyderabad-Warangal corridor as part of Hyderabad-Warangal-Nagpur industrial corridor as the State was willing to develop industrial clusters all along. A Leather Park should be allotted to the State as it was ready to allot 151 acres of land for an international leather complex with or without tanning activity, he added. Later, in his meeting with the Union Health minister, JP Nadda, he urged the latter to establish a National Drug Academy and Pharmacopy in Telangana as the government was ready to give sufficient land for the same.