The city will have a dedicated infrastructure facility to promote the growth of life sciences, innovation and research activities.
A nine million square feet Bengaluru Life Sciences Park will come up on over 52.27 acres at a cost of ₹5,000 crore. Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa will lay the foundation stone for this project at Electronics City on Wednesday.
Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwathnarayan, who addressed a press conference on Tuesday, said the project is being set up under a public-private partnership with the government of Karnataka and private entity Labzone Corp. The first phase of the project will be completed by December 2022.
Mr. Ashwathnarayan, who is also the minister for IT/BT & Science and Technology, said, “Setting up of the Bengaluru Life Sciences Park was envisioned 20 years ago when the Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology was set up. The efforts put in by the Vision Group has finally borne fruit.”
With 380 companies and 200 start-ups, the Deputy Chief Minister said that Karnataka, and particularly Bengaluru, is home to around 60% of all major biotechnology firms in the country. Karnataka has 9% market share in Asia’s biotechnology space while India has a total of around 35%.
The Deputy Chief Minister said the Life Sciences Park is expected to house over 150 companies and is expected to generate around 50,000 jobs. It will have a dedicated incubation space with shared instrumentation lab facilities and customisable fully-fitted lab and office suites.
“Today, we are very advanced in precision medicine and treatment, live organisms-based treatment, and real-time RT-PCR tests, which have been possible due to R&D in biotechnology. The agriculture sector will witness a major leap with the help of biotechnology,” he added.
“The biotechnology sector has played a major role in not only economic development but in the overall development of various sectors, such as pharma, diagnostics and agriculture,” he added.
Kiran Majumdar Shaw, chairperson of the Vision Group on Biotechnology, said it was the idea of the Deputy Chief Minister to converge Information Technology and Life Sciences.
“There’s a huge demand for this park, which will attract major biotech players from across the globe,” she added
Chirag Purushotham, CEO of Bangalore Life Sciences Park, said 60% of this space (around 37 lakh sq. ft.) will be solely dedicated to industry cluster development of biotechnology in PPP mode for a lease period of 64 years.
The 52-acre industrial cluster will form the third component of the Biohelix Park, aimed at strengthening the biotechnology ecosystem in the State.
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