BT Park to come up in Electronic City

BT Park to come up in Electronic City

The park will have a common laboratory facility that can be shared by companies.

Deccan Herald

The much-hyped Biotechnology Park (BT Park), which has remained on paper for nearly two years, is finally set to materialise over the next couple of months. Not in the University of Agricultural Sciences (GKVK campus), not even in Nagawara where it was originally thought to be, but in Electronic City, neighbouring IT companies along Hosur Road.

While the Centre has approved it, an expert committee will visit the site chosen for the project soon.

The State government has released an initial Rs 25 crore for the project, for land acquisition and other needs, said IT and BT Secretary M K Shankaralinge Gowda.
“The plans for the sites on the park are being finalised. The park is coming up over 100 acres. We are dividing it into plots of one to five acres. What we are looking at now is a ‘bio-cluster’ -- units involved in different fields within biotechnology can co-exist with a common effluent treatment plant and even, perhaps, common instrumentation, to some extent,” said Mr Gowda. The land is already in the department’s possession.

The Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB), set up by the State government a few years ago, will shift its campus to the park. So will the prestigious Centre for Human Genetics. Nearly 20 companies have already applied for allotment of land in the park to set up their facilities.

Common lab
The park envisages setting up a common laboratory for basic experiments and tests, Mr Gowda said.

“Companies can use this facility for whatever tests is shareable, while tests that require confidentiality will, of course, be done in-house. There will obviously be some amount of research-work which can be done in the public domain, for which they can use common instruments,” said Mr Gowda.

Infrastructure at the park is likely to be ready by the end of this year, along with requisite pollution clearances. Land allotment will begin after that, he said.