Clients exit Knowledge Park of UoH

Hyderabad, March 24: A day after the University of Hyderabad put on hold the controversial Knowledge and Innovation Park (KIP), some of the project’s anchor clients have backed out of it.

The city-based Aurobindo Pharma Ltd, a bulk drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients and formulations company, and Alexandria, a US-based lab space provider, said they were pulling out of KIP both because of the delay in its execution and the controversy over the land issue.

“We had a proposal to set up a centre at KIP in 2008. But, since there was no progress, we had decided to set up operations elsewhere,” M Madan Mohan Reddy, Director, Aurobindo Pharma, told Express.

In January, Aurobindo, with an investment of over Rs 15 crore, set up its R&D centre near Patancheruvu.

The company said it had acquired about 25 acres for the centre, which commenced operations with 45 scientists and has plans to take that number up to 200. “We have no plans to set up any other R&D centre in the foreseeable future,” Madan clarified.

Similarly, Alexandria too has opened an incubation centre in Genome Valley as part of its Rs 1,000-crore investment plan. “We would like to be closer to the University and undertake research activity, but we don’t want to be part of anything that’s controversial,” said a senior official of Alexandria.

To emulate Cambridge and MIT, where academia and industry collaborate to set up centres, UoH had proposed KIP in 2008 and earmarked 200 acres for it.

While UoH holds 89 per cent stake in it, the remaining is held by AP Industrial Infrastructure Corpn. It had roped in four anchor clients, ICSA India Ltd., Kasyap Life Sciences Pvt.

Ltd, Alexandria Real Estate and Aurobindo Pharma.

–Agencies