Food Corporation starts tendering to build modern silos

The silos will have to be constructed under a model in which the developer acquires land and arranges for a rail siding and other requirements

Food Corporation of India (FCI) on Thursday started the process of tendering for construction of 1.75 million tonnes of modern silos across the country, as part of an ambitious programme to augment the country's foodgrain storage capacity.

The steel silos will be build in 36 locations across nine states. And, will have to compulsorily have a railway siding alongside, Anoop Kumar, executive director of FCI, told Business Standard.

He said the silos would be completed within two years of signing the final contracts, which could take another six to eight months. "We are getting enquiries from many big players from countries like Germany, Russia and Turkey, which are keen to invest in building modern grain silos in India," Kumar added.

The silos will have to constructed under the DBFOO model, in which the developer acquires land and arranges for a rail siding and other requirements. The developer gets an assured return for 20 years; also, a pre-determined variable and handling charges for movement of foodgrain.

A silo complex along with railway siding will typically have a capacity to store 50,000 tonnes of grain, with each silo being of 12,500 tonnes. "The silos (will be) given the option of being converted into full-fledged mandis, where the farmer will directly bring the crop. It will be stored scientifically and thereafter transported to all parts of the country, thus saving the time and cost," the official said.  

FCI’s chairman and managing director, C Viswanath, said: “FCI is the first government organisation to have formulated model documents for a DBFOO approach,” said.

FCI currently has a little over 70 million tonnes of grain storage capacity, which includes those hired from state governments, while the foodgrain procured by it is much more.