SHIMLA: In a major bid to attract pharmaceutical players to North India’s only Bulk Drug Park (BDP) in Una, the Himachal Pradesh government is gearing up to offer electricity at a highly subsidized rate.
According to the Detailed Project Report (DPR) prepared for the park, industries setting up units here will be supplied power at just Rs 3 per unit. This highly competitive rate has been proposed to keep production costs low and provide a highly favorable manufacturing environment for investors.
The Bulk Drug Park is designed to house industries specializing in the manufacture of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and other key drug formulations. These manufacturing processes rely heavily on continuous power supply to run heavy machinery, maintain temperature-controlled production units, and manage other complex technical operations.
Given that electricity expenses constitute a massive chunk of the overall production cost for API manufacturers, the state government has prioritized uninterrupted power supply at highly discounted rates.
To ensure seamless distribution, the state plans to set up six electrical substations, each with a capacity of 20 MVA, inside the park premises. This will create a combined capacity of 120 MVA, ensuring 24×7 uninterrupted power to nearly 100 industrial plots being developed in the park.
Land for these substations has already been selected. Since the chosen site is already leveled, authorities expect construction work to progress rapidly. In the initial phase, eight 11 kV feeders will be drawn from these substations to distribute power directly to the units.
Additionally, a 12.6 MVA substation has already been constructed at Gondpur Jaichand at a cost of Rs 16 crore to support the initial development of the Bulk Drug Park. The state government has also approved a budget of Rs 28.50 crore for the construction of the new substations.
The state industries department is optimistic that the combination of top-tier infrastructure and low-cost power will successfully attract major domestic and global pharmaceutical giants to the park.
Confirming the development, Anshul Dhiman, Joint Director of the Industries Department, stated that the provision for cheap electricity has been officially integrated into the Bulk Drug Park’s DPR. He added that the process to establish the substations has already begun to ensure uninterrupted power supply for the upcoming units.
