CHENNAI: A 250-acre pharma park will be set up within the Nanguneri Special Economic Zone in Tirunelveli, Health Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran announced in the Assembly on Thursday.

Between 40 and 50 large and small pharmaceutical manufacturers and eight to 10 allied institutions would set up shop in the Nanguneri SEZ, providing 2,800 direct jobs and 6,000 indirect jobs. It was estimated that drugs worth over Rs. 500 crore would be manufactured.

Mr. Ramachandran said 23 private drug factories were set up in various parts of the State in the last three months. In the previous regime, applications from several pharma companies for licences were pending, forcing them to move to other States. Now a qualified drug controller had been appointed and was processing the applications.

The Minister said dialysis machines would be provided in all district hospitals. Doctors and nurses trained in using the machines would be appointed.

An institute on the lines of the Government Thoracic Hospital would be set up in Madurai to address issues of tuberculosis and co-infection with HIV in the State. All government hospitals would be equipped, over the course of the year, to conduct HIV tests.

Mr. Ramachandran said steps had been taken to screen for HIV in all district, sub-district hospitals and block Primary Health Centres. The number of centres providing anti-retro viral therapy for persons living with HIV/AIDS with a low CD4 count would be increased by five to touch 20 across the State. The new centres would come up at a cost of Rs. 1.86 crore and would be located within the government hospitals in Dharmapuri, Virudhunagar, Villupuram, Karur and Nagapattinam.

A total of 161 primary health centres in the districts affected by tsunami would be given state-of-the-art machines to take care of newborns. The total cost of the project, to be supported by UNICEF, was Rs. 1.15 crore.

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