Rs 300-cr NIPER campus to come up near Gandhinagar
The state capital is all set to house one more educational campus in its periphery. National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) is setting-up Rs 300 crore state-of-the-art project at Palej village.
At present, NIPER has only one fully functional campus, at Mohali in Punjab. Considering the stupendous growth of the pharmaceutical and allied fields, and the requirement for skilled manpower, the Union government has sanctioned six more such facilities — in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam.
“The upcoming campus in Gandhinagar will be commissioned by the end of this calendar year. Construction work to develop 60 acres of land, provided by the state government at a concessional rate, has already been awarded to Faridabad-based company National Projects Construction Corporation Limited (NPCCL),” said CJ Shishoo, advisor, Ahmedabad NIPER.
Shishoo, who is also honorary director with BV Patel Pharmaceutical Education and Research Development (PERD) centre, said that courses had commenced in 2007 at PERD premises in Ahmedabad. Currently, 70 students are studying in six different post-graduation courses, he said, adding that once the campus is commissioned, nearly 350 students would be accommodated in 12 courses.
Apart from classrooms equipped with audio-visual facilities and laboratories for different courses, a central testing laboratory and animal house have been envisaged for research activities. The sprawling campus will have a sports complex and landscaping garden. Hostel facilities for boys and girls and staff quarters would also come up. “It is a research based education institute. Research activities to develop drugs to tackle diseases like Tuberculosis, night blindness and Malaria have been kicked-off. The idea is to tone up the level of pharmaceutical education and research by training future teachers, research scientists and managers for the industry and profession,” he said.
“Pharmaceutical industry in India is worth around Rs 95,000 crore and Gujarat is having lion’s share of over 40 per cent in it. The state’s share in national export of drugs is around 45 per cent. The industry is growing at 20 per cent annually and there has been acute shortage of trained manpower in research activities,” said Chirag Doshi, vice-president, Indian Drug Manufacturers’
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