Minister inaugurates 2nd mega Food Park in Uttarakhand

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal on April 8, 2018, inaugurated the second mega Food Park in Uttarakhand at Mahuakhera Ganj village, Kashipur, in Udham Singh Nagar district. The park- M/s Himalayan Mega Food Park Private Ltd – has been set up at a cost of Rs 99.96 crore and will benefit around 25,000 farmers in this as well as neighbouring districts. The first mega Food Park in the state located at Haridwar has already become operational.

Giving details of the project, Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the mega Food Park, which has been set up in in an area of 50.14 acre, would have a central processing centre as well as well as three Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) at Ram Nagar, Ramgarh, and Kaladungi. She said the park would also have facilities for primary processing and storage near the farms. She said the park would not only benefit farmers of Udham Singh Nagar but also those of nearby districts of Nainital, Garhwal, Almora and Champawat, according to a PIB release.

The facilities being created at Central Processing Centre (CPC) of this mega Food Park include Multi-Purpose Cold Storage of 1,250 MT, Aseptic Brick Filling Line of 7,500 pack per hour, Dry Warehouse of 6,000 MT, Fruit & Vegetable Processing Line input capacity 7 MT/Hr for Tomato Paste, 8 MT/Hr for Apple, 10 MT/Hr. for Carrot, and 5 MT/Hr. for fruit pulp.

The Union Minister said the mega food park would leverage an additional investment of about Rs 250 crore in 25-30 food processing units in the park and would eventually lead to a turnover of about Rs 450-500 crore annually. “The Park will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers in the CPC and PPC catchment areas,” she added.

She said the food processing industry ministry is creating Mega Food Parks with modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward and backward linkages through a cluster based approach. She said the sector would contribute towards doubling farmers’ income in the coming years by working to achieve this goal through implementation of projects under the flagship scheme of ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana’.