Centre to extend cold storage facilities to five NE airports

Agartala, Nov 20 (UNI) In a bid to boost export business in Northeast, the Centre has initiated an ambitious plan to set up storage infrastructure for perishable items in five potential airports in the region.

State Commerce Minister Tapan Chakraborty said about Rs 2 crore had been sanctioned for setting up of perishable cargo handling facility at Guwahati airport, while another Rs 8 lakh was allocated for Imphal, Agartala, Aizawl and Dimapur airports to set up 'walking type cold storages'. The construction works would be executed by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

Elaborating the project, Mr Chakraborty said northeastern states had been pursuing for extending storage facilities in the airports for the last few years and recently the Commerce Ministry had initiated some export project for flowers, fruits and organic vegetables.

However, the projects did not materialise due to lack of infrastructure and transportation bottlenecks though the region was accorded top priority in the field of export, Mr Chakraborty added.

UNI