• Lays foundation stone of Pristine Mega Food Park

• Emphasis the need to setup Mega Food Parks across the country

NewZNew (Chandigarh/New Delhi) : Union Food Processing Industries Minister Mrs. Harsimrat Kaur Badal today reiterated her resolve to implement nationwide Mega Food Park scheme to give a major boost to the Food Processing Sector and to reduce wastage of agriculture produce at each stage of supply chain with particular focus on fruits and vegetables.

While laying the foundation stone of Mega Food Park at Khagaria, Bihar to Pristine Mega Food Park Mrs. Badal stressed the need to setup at least one mega food park in each state said that the objective of the Mega Food Park Scheme was to create modern infrastructure for food processing industry along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward and backward linkages.

Speaking on the occasion, Mrs. Badal said that the Mega Food Park at Mansi in District Khagaria will go a long way in contributing to the development of Food Processing sector in the region and create immense opportunities for entrepreneurship and employment in the State bestowed with huge agriculture production potential. It will benefit the farmers, growers, food processors and consumers in the state. The Minister also informed that the mega food park will be set up in an area of 70 acres of land at village Mansi. She said that the park will be set up with a project cost of Rs. 127.6 crore besides having a Central Processing Centre with modern infrastructure and common facilities. She also informed that the Park will have backward linkage with the major production areas with four primary processing centres to be set up at Hazipur (Vaishali), GulabBagh (Purnia), Kalyanpur (Samastipur) and Parao (Muzaffarpur).

The minister also apprised that on completion, the park will have facilities of 40,000 MT dry warehouse, 10,000 MT Grain Silos , 5000 MT multi-products cold storage, 10 ton /hour pack house, 2 metric ton /hour IQF, 1500 MTDeep Fridge besides having modern testing lab and reefer vans. The Park will also have modern infrastructure like roads, electricity, STP/ETP, administrative building etc.  She said that about 30-35 units are likely to be set up in this park with an investment of about Rs. 250 crore which will generate an annual turnover of Rs. 500 crore.  The Park will provide direct and indirect employment to about 6000 people and benefit about 30,000 farmers in its catchment area.

The function was presided over by  Mr. Shyam Rajak, Minister of Industries Bihar, Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyothi.Hon’ble Union Minister of State for  Railways Mr. Manoj Sinha and Mr. Mahboob Ali Kalser,  Member of Parliament, Khagaria were the Guest of Honour on the ocassion.