Bengaluru, November 19, 2015: Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Hon’ble Union Minister of Food Processing Industries today laid the foundation stone of the first Mega Food Park in Telangana promoted by M/s Smart Agro Food Park Pvt. Ltd. at Village Lakkampally and Chimrajpally, Nandipet Mandal, District Nizamabad, Telangana. SadhviNiranjanJyoti, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Smt. K. Kavitha, Member of Parliament from Nizamabad and Shri A. Jeevan Reddy, MLA from Armur constituency of Telangana were also present on the occasion.
Ministry of Food Processing Industries has sanctioned two more Mega Food Parks to be set up in Khammam & Mahboobnagar districts in the State of Telangana.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries said that under the visionary guidance of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji, Ministry of Food Processing Industries is focusing on boosting the Food Processing Sector so that agriculture sector grows exponentially and becomes the engine of growth to drive the “Make in India” initiative of Hon’ble Prime Minister. Hon’ble Minister also stated that Ministry has identified creation of modern infrastructure for food processing as a focus area and encouraging private investment. To achieve this objective, Ministry of Food Processing Industries has been implementing the Mega Food Park Scheme in the country to give a major boost to the Food Processing Sector and to facilitate creation of modern infrastructure for food processing along the value chain from the farm to the market with strong forward and backward linkages through a cluster based approach.
Smt. Badal informed that this is the first Mega Food Park in Telangana and will be set up with the project cost of Rs. 108.95 crore in an area of 78 acres. The Mega Food Park will have strong backward linkage and three Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) will be set up at Medchal, Medak and Nalgonda. On completion, the park will have facilities of 5000 MT Multi Commodity Cold Storage, 5000 MT Raw Material Warehouse, 5000 MT Finished Good Warehouse, 5000 MT Grain Silos, 500 MT Deep Freeze, 20 MT/day Turmeric Processing Facility and modern food testing lab. The Park is expected to provide direct and indirect employment to about 6000 people and benefit about 30,000 farmers in its catchment area.
Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal thanked the State Government of Telangana for the support extended by them in setting up the Food Park and expressed confidence that this Mega Food Park project will create a modern infrastructure for arresting post-harvest loses of horti and non-horti produces and provide impetus to the growth of food processing sector in Telangana. The timely completion of this Mega Food Park project will not only provide a big boost in the growth of food processing infrastructure in Telangana but also help in providing better prices to farmers, reduce wastage of perishables, add value to agricultural produce and create huge opportunities for entrepreneurship and employment in the State.
Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)
