PANAJI
In a setback to the State government, the Central government has rejected Goa’s proposal for setting up a Medical Device Park at Verna.
Goa had been eyeing the possibility of setting up a cluster for manufacturing medical devices at Verna and had sent its proposal to the Department of Pharmaceuticals of the Central government. The Centre had also received proposals from other States and Union Territories.
According to a release by the Union Department of Pharmaceuticals the proposals were evaluated as per the criteria given in the scheme guidelines and final approval for financial assistance of Rs 100 crore each was given to Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
The release further says that there is no proposal to establish more medical device parks in the country, under the scheme and as such Goa’s proposal stands rejected.
The State government had identified approximately 250 acres at the Verna Industrial Estate to set up the park. As the proposal had not yet got approval from the Centre, the State government had not approached any industries or firms to set up medical device manufacturing units.
The scheme offers a grant-in-aid of 70 per cent of the project cost of infrastructure facilities, up to Rs 100 crore while 30 per cent of the cost has to be borne by the State.
