Bangalore: Biogenus India Limited has committed to invest $ 31 million in Karnataka to set up a life sciences park and a research lab, state secretary of Information Technology (IT) and Bio Technology (BT) Vivek Kulkarni said.

Kulkarni told reporters the company, the Indian arm of the US-based Biogenus Inc, has told the government it would invest $ 20 million to set up the park on a 1,800- acre land at Gokarna in Uttara Kannada district.

The park, which is a marine biotech research station, would develop new strains of prawns – shrimp culture, according to him.

"In the last 10 years, because of white patch disease, production went down and there were tremendous environmental problems. Many people had to give up shrimp culture, which is a $ 10 billion market," Kulkarni said.

Biogenus sources said the park would conduct field trials on shrimp culture media, enzymes and microbial bioremediation.

Kulkarni said Biogenus has also said it would invest $ 11 million in a bacterial culture and enzyme research centre in Bangalore. Sources said this centre would have a capacity to produce 10,000 tonnes of enzymes and 5,000 tonnes of microbial cultures.

PTI