By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, AUG 11, 2013: THE Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the setting up of already appraised 12 new Mega Food Park projects as per 11th Plan pattern of assistance i.e. capital grant at the rate of 50 percent of the eligible project cost in general areas and at the rate of 75 percent of eligible project cost in difficult and hilly areas i.e. North East Regional including Sikkim, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and ITDP notified areas of the States, subject to a maximum of Rs.50 crore per project.

The Mega Food Parks scheme will be implemented with an allocation of Rs. 1714 crore (Rs.1800 crore – Rs.86 crore to be transferred to cold chain scheme) during the 12th Plan. The prescribed timeline for Project Implementation in respect of Mega Food Parks is 30 months from the date of issue of final approval.

The following major benefits are expected to be achieved through successful implementation of each project:

i. Development of adequate infrastructure facilities along the supply chain for the food processing sector which would result in reduction of wastage of agri produce and remunerative price for the farmers.

ii. Expected to benefit 6000 farmers / producers directly and 25000-30000 farmers indirectly.

iii. Estimated investment in each project will be about Rs, 100 crore in Common Facilities and will Leverage an additional investments about of Rs. 250 crore.

iv. Expected annual turnover of each project will be Rs. 500 crore.

v. Each Mega Food Park will generate about 40,000 direct and indirect jobs.

vi. In each Project, an estimated no. of 30-40 Food Processing Industries are expected to be setup.

The setting up of 12 new Mega Food Parks will result in creation of adequate Infrastructure in the country with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet.

The Scheme will be implemented in a market driven manner commensurate with both global and national demands. Innovative supply chain management will be the key to implementation of this scheme.

The Infrastructure Development Scheme for Mega Food Parks aims at providing excellent infrastructure facilities for food processing industries along the value chain from farm to market. The Scheme operates in hub and spoke model under which there will be a Central Processing Centre (CPC) which will be networked with farm proximate Collection Centres (CC) and Primary Processing Centers (PPC). While the CPC will provide core processing infrastructure, the PPC/CC will facilitate the basic infrastructure facilities for cleaning, grading, sorting and packing facilities, dry warehouses, specialized cold stores including pre-cooling chambers, ripening chambers, reefer vans, mobile pre-coolers and mobile collection vans.