Govt to include ICD, Indore as depot through which drugs can be imported under Drugs Rules, 1945

New Delhi, September 3, 2021 :

The Union health ministry has issued a draft amendment on the Drugs Rules, 1945, to add the Inland Container Depot (ICD), Tihi, at Indore in Madhya Pradesh as one of the depots where drugs will be allowed to be imported through.

The draft amendment rule, named as Drugs (Amendment) Rules, 2021, mentioned that in the Drugs Rules, 1945, in rule 43A, for the words ‘Inland Container Depot Dhanbad,’ the words ‘Inland Container Depot at Dhanbad and Tihi’ shall be substituted.

The government had issued draft notification in early 2019 to notify the ICD, Dhanbad, as a port to carry out imports of drugs, and on July 29, 2020, the DTAB deliberated and recommended the approval of ICD, Tihi also for the purpose. The move was based on a representation from the chief manager of the public sector player Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor), which had shifted its operations to Tihi earlier, according to reports. The ICD is located ideally to cater to various industries in the cities of Indore, Pithampur, Dewas, Ratlam and Ujjain among others.

The Ministry, in a notification published in the Gazette, has stated that the government is proposing to make the amendment after consultation with the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB). The draft rules will be taken into consideration on or after the expiry of a period of thirdly days from the date of publication in the Gazette of India, and invited objections and suggestions from any person within the deadline.

The Rule 43A lists out the places through which the drugs are allowed to be imported to the Country, including road and railway lines, inland container depots, sea and air ports in various parts of the nation. It stipulates certain railway stations and road and rail lines to transport medicines from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, among others.

Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Cochin, Nhava Sheva, Kandula and ICDS at Tughlakabad and Patparganj in Delhi and Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, Goa, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Marmugao port in Goa are some of the ports which are allowed to import drugs through.

The airports which are allowed to import drugs include Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Goa, Bengaluru and Visakhapatnam. Pharmabiz