With a view to establish Punjab as the biotechnology hub of North India, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today announced that state government would develop its first ever Biotech park on 75 acres of land in sector 81 in Mohali within one year.In a high level meeting with the state officials here on Tuesday, Mr. Badal said “our target is to boost scientific activities to accelerate the use of new techniques in new sectors like biotech as being an agricultural state Punjab has a great potential to grow in this field”.Adding further he said that SAS Nagar would be a home to cluster of agri-food and biotechnology institutes as center has already announced to set up Bio Processing Unit and Punjab Biotechnology Incubator for this city.This park would be developed by the Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion along with the Science and Technology department.
Deputy CM also asked the Principal Secretary Science and Technology to visit the leading players of this sector to initiate a dialogue for assistance and investment in next 15 days.Deputy CM has also ordered to set up a training centre for students and progressive farmers in five acres where they could be trained in that field besides working on tissue culture to develop new varieties. Mr. Badal has also asked the officials to allot plots to the investors in Biotech Park on priority basis.Separately reviewing the ongoing preservation work at historic Gobindgarh fort at Amritsar, Mr Badal announced that all parts of the fort would be opened for public by September 25.Prominent amongst present in the meeting included Principal Secretary Investment Promotion Karan Avtar Singh, Principal Secretary Science and Technology Vishavjit Khanna, Secretary Housing A. Venu Prasad, Managing Director PIDB Anurag Aggarwal, Secretary Tourism and Cultural Affairs Raji. P. Srivastva, Secretary Science and Technology Seema Jain, Special Principal Secretaries to Deputy CM Manvesh Singh Sidhu and Ajay Mahajan.