Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal today 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 Mega Food Park in this district was inaugurated by the Union Food Processing Industries Minister in the presence of Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Uttarakhand State Finance Minister Shri Prakash Pant & Uttarakhand State Transport & Social Welfare Minister Shri Yashpal Arya. The first Mega Food Park in the state located at Haridwar has already become operational.
Giving details of the project, Smt Harsimrat Badal said the mega food park, which has been set up in in an area of 50.14 acres, 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.
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, 5 MT/Hr. for fruit pulp, QC & Food Testing Lab and other related food processing facilities.
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. The Minister highlighted that the modern infrastructure for food processing created at Park will benefit the farmers, growers, processors and consumers of Uttarakhand and adjoining areas immensely and prove to be a big boost to the growth of the food processing sector in the State of Uttarakhand.
The Minister also highlighted how her ministry, under the visionary guidance of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, was focusing on boosting the food processing industry so that agriculture sector could grow exponentially and become a major contributor to doubling the farmer’s income and ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government.
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’. Smt Badal also thanked the Uttarakhand State government for the support extended by them in setting up the mega food park.