Bengaluru to get Lifesciences Park worth Rs 5,000 crore

Karnataka has unveiled its plans to set up a $500-million (Rs 5,000 crore) Bengaluru Lifesciences Park that promises to be a major centre for research and innovation in the biotechnology sector.

The park will come up on a 9 million sqft space in Electronics City, Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan, who is the IT/BT minister, said. The foundation stone for the park will be laid on Wednesday by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.

“When it comes to biotechnology, Karnataka has a 9% share in Asia and 35% in India. About 60% of the companies are located in the state, which includes 200 startups. Karnataka accounts for one-third of India’s biotech exports and is home to 54% of the biotech workforce. We have to commercialize and scale up for which we need such parks,” Narayan said at a virtual news conference to announce the Bengaluru Lifesciences Park, which he said will be an “integrated” facility.

The Bengaluru Lifesciences Park will come up on a 52-acre land. “There is totally 86 acres, which includes the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB) on 10 acres, the Centre for Human Genetics on 10 acres and the Bengaluru Bioinnovation Centre (BBC) on 10 acres,” Narayan said. “Our demand initially was for 4 lakh sqft, but by December 2022, we will have a building on 10 lakh sqft in the first phase.”

The project has languished for many years. Earlier this month, the Cabinet approved developing the park whose work has been entrusted to Labzone, a private entity. “This is a public-private partnership. The government will get a land premium of Rs 109 crore,” Narayan said, adding that the project will see an investment of Rs 5,000 crore.

The push for the project came from the state’s Vision Group on Biotechnology headed by Biocon executive chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. “When the vision group started, we conceived the idea of the park, where technologies will converge. Karnataka is already the leading state in terms of biotechnology and the goal is to put Karnataka on the global map,” she said.

She said the Bengaluru Lifesciences Park will offer a “unique” ecosystem. “There’s the IBAB, the BBC and India’s premier IT companies are in the Electronics City area. Plus, there’s the Electronics City Industrial Township Authority. We have a very important and pragmatic ecosystem,” she said, expressing confidence that premier biotech companies from all over the world will get involved in this project.