AP govt may allot 500 acres to Divis Labs for greenfield project.

Andhra Pradesh government is actively considering a request made by Hyderabad-based Divis Laboratories Limited for the allotment of 500 acres of land-identified near Kakinada-to set up a green-field project for making Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and drug intermediates.

The proposal is likely to come up for approval in the next cabinet meeting, according to the government sources. However, the company officials did not respond despite repeated phone calls by this reporter.

This is going to be the third green-field project of Divis Laboratories which is being proposed after a gap of almost 12 years. The company had established its first plant in a 500-acre site at Hyderabad in 1999. It had set up its second plant in Visakhapatnam in the year 2002 in over a 350-acre land. Both these plants are primarily engaged in the manufacture of APIs and intermediates.

However, the site identified for Divis' project is a part of a 2,000-acre piece of land that was acquired for use of GMR Group back in 2008 by Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC). The Bangalore-headquartered group was planning to develop a green-field sea port on this land as a part of the 10,000-acre Kakinada SEZ (KSEZ) project.

'Divis needs a seaside place as the project requires a marine outfall among other things. That is way they chose this site,'an Industry department official told Business Standard.


BS