The Hindu Business Line : Dabur, Bengal Govt in talks for cancer drug facility

DABUR Pharma is in an advanced stage of negotiation with the West Bengal Government for setting up an anti-cancer drug manufacturing facility in the State.

The Rs 220-crore company has earmarked land at Mungpoo in the Darjeeling hills for medicinal plantation and extraction of anti-cancer formulation unit.

Dabur Pharma recently set up a formulation unit at Kalyani in West Bengal.

According to Mr Gopal Krishna, Managing Director of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Ltd, discussions with Dabur Pharma are on fast track.

"They are looking for roughly over 20 acres of land currently under the State-sponsored Cinchona plantation at Mungpoo to set up a nursery for a particular herb which will be grown by the local farmers to be sold back to the company for extraction," he said.

Mr Gopal Krishna was talking to newspersons at the inauguration of the fruit processing plant of Dabur Foods Ltd near Siliguri.

"Dabur, which originated from West Bengal, is essentially coming back to the State," he said.

The negotiations with the company have been on for five to six months. "We are expecting things to materialise fast," Mr Gopal Krishna said. Earlier, addressing the ceremony, the Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said the West Bengal Government had formed a committee to identify the medicinal plants in West Bengal.

"A number of plants have already been identified in North Bengal. Our idea is to create the infrastructure and invite private sector for investment. We are expecting some headway in attracting investment, shortly," he said.

Referring to the negotiations with Dabur Pharma, Mr Bhattacharjee said the Sate Government had allocated land to the company and was expecting a positive response.

"We are eagerly awaiting the company's decision," he said.

Mr Bhattacharjee said that as part of the Sate Government's initiative to boost the agri-processing industry, four districts of North Bengal had been notified as pineapple processing zone. The move, he said, would ensure that investors in the processing industry could source raw material easily and also ensure returns for farmers.

Though a traditional pineapple growing zone, pineapple farming in the area gave way to tea plantations in the 1990s because of low returns. As of date, the zone produces close to three lakh tonnes of pineapple per year. The State Government earlier declared similar zones for mango, litchi and potato.

"We have also taken up a project for enhancing the productivity of orange orchards in Darjeeling hills," the Chief Minister said.

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