30 mega food parks to come up: Sahay

Kolkata, Jul 30(UNI) Thirty mega food parks with an overall investment of Rs 400 crore would come up across the country, Union Food Processing Minister Subodh Kant Sahay said here today.

Speaking to mediapersons at a programme organised by Bengal National Chamber of Commerce, Mr Sahay said the Centre would provide Rs 50 crore for these projects as grant. The rest would be raised by private investors.

''A Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV) will be formed to rope in investment for these parks. One such park will be set up in Bengal,'' he said.

Each park would have multi-purpose cold chains, logistics distribution centres, processing zones, refrigerated mobile vans and market linkages to ensure that the farmers get proper price for their produces. Each of these parks would have three districts connected with them.

''At present there are 56 food parks, of which eight are in Bengal, but we want integrated facilities instead of stand-alone parks,'' Mr Sahay said. State governments would provide land and the infrastructure was likely to be built by the private investors.

Meanwhile, he said the Centre is also framing a comprehensive Food Law which would allow formation of an autonomous food authority within two months. The authority, which will work with a scientific approach, would frame standards for the food processing industry.

UNI