Bihar govt for action plan to tap intl market of Makhana

Patna, Jul 21 (UNI) The Bihar government has commissioned a wing of Infrastructure Leasing and Finance Services(IL&FS) to prepare a blue print of the action plan to facilitate processing and packaging centres for ''Makhana''.

Official sources today said that under the ''Makhana Cluster Plan,'' the state government had shortlisted four districts--Purnea Darbhanga, Madhubani and Katihar-- for cultivation of Makhana in a planned manner with an eye to tap the national and international markets, as Bihar accounts for 85 per cent of the overall Makhana grown in the country.

'' IL &FS has been commissioned as the project management agency which would be entrusted to establish eight Common Facility Centre(CFC) for the processing works and other related activities,'' sources said adding that each such centre would incur an expenditure of Rs 1.04 crore.

'' The CFC would facilitate procurement, storage, grading, processing, value additional and packaging'', sources said and added that the roadmap would also recommend steps required to provide market linkages, which was to be actuated in second phase of implementation.

The Makhana Cluster Plan also envisages digging and construction of ponds in at least 2000 acres of land.

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