BT park to be ready in 18 months

BT park to be ready in 18 months
VIJAY TIMES NEWS

Bangalore: The biotech park in Bangalore will be ready in 18 months, said Principal Secretary for IT/BT and science and technology, Anup Pujari on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a geoinformatics workshop, Pujari said, the State government, is pressing NBCC to complete the work in 18 months.

The Rs 160-crore BT park, coming up on a 100 acre area in Nagawara in the planned IT/BT corridor, will be constructed by the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) and the Institute of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (IBAB).

The park, named Bangalore Helix, and planned as a biotech cluster, will house the Institute of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (IBAB) and support units with common infrastructure. It will comprise of biotech organisations, biotech incubation centre, biotech business centre, a green house, animal care facility, a common effluent treatment plant and R&D Institutions.

Eight biotech incubators are planned, covering a total area of 10,000 square feet. Excluding the cost of land (around Rs 60 crore) already acquired, the cluster involves an investment of Rs 100 crore.

The occupants at Bangalore Helix will pay for infrastructure services, boasting of advanced computer facilities to water treatment, considered essential for biotech research.

IBAB, located at ITPL in Whitefield, at present pays a rent of Rs one crore. This money can be used for developing infrastructure and equipment for sustained research. The BT park received a boost after the State government cleared Rs 10 crore for the project at Bangalore Bio - 2004.

To a question whether Bangalore was losing its status on the BRO/ITES front, Pujari said, given the Citys talent pool in law, marketing, architecture, medicine, and engineering, such fears are misplaced.

"Companies come and go. Those that move out are replaced by others," he added.