Nagpur: Amid the controversy over ‘losing’ major investments by Tata-Airbus and French aviation major Safran’s MRO, Nagpur also appears to have lost, at least for now, an institute of national and international repute — the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), according to a report in local English daily.
Replying to a query from Vidarbha Economic Development (VED) Council, Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya said he had already clarified in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that the Union Finance Ministry’s ‘Expenditure Finance Committee’ had not “supported proposals for creation of new NIPERS at present stage”. This indicates Maharashtra’s first NIPER would remain on paper for the foreseeable future.
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Late Union Minister Arun Jaitley had announced NIPER at Nagpur, almost seven years back in his budget speech in 2015. The demand was first raised by the VED Council in 2011 to the Central Government to which the reply was delivered by Jaitley.
Just like any other project snatched away from MIHAN, the land too, was allocated by then Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis — 40 acres in 2017. Since then, no progress has been made. The NIPER was first proposed to be set up in Nagpur, but as per reports, due to lack of political will, it was shifted to Mohali.
NIPERS were established at various cities like Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Hajipur, Kolkata, Raebareli and Guwahati but failed to come to Maharashtra despite having several pharmaceutical companies here.
According to the report, it was speculated that NIPER would give a big fillip to the pharma industry in the region with renowned names like Lupin already setting up a plant in Mihan. VED officials said the proposals for setting up other new NIPERS at New Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Madurai (Tamil Nadu) and Jhalawar (Rajasthan) were also on paper till date. In December 2021, the Parliament passed NIPER (Amendment) Bill, 2021, clarifying that existing institutions and similar ones to be set up subsequently would be institutes of national importance.
