Spread across 374 acres, Phase-I of the park would come up on 100 acres and house shared infrastructure facilities starting from cold storage to food packaging built on a hub-and-spoke model.
The project is aimed at generating sustainable and better product prices for local farmers through value-addition and backward integration.Speaking at the National Conference on Mega Food Parks here, Mohan Reddy, promoter of Smart Agro Industries, which is one of the investors in the park, said, “While the subsidy granted for the project is Rs 50 crore, the three partner companies would invest Rs 70 crore over two years.”
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The project received approval in December last year. The partners have roped in IL&FS to prepare a detailed project report (DPR), which is likely to be ready by June, according to him.
The state government had allotted the land three years ago. However, it took a time to hit the ground due to lack of single-window mechanism for facilitating faster approvals among other issues. Another mega food park is also taking shape in West Godavari district of coastal Andhra. The state has only one operational facility, Srini Food Park in Chittoor district.
Siraj Hussain, secretary in MoFPI, said six new mega food parks would be operational in the country during the 2014-15 period. These were coming up in Punjab, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Karnataka.
The grant earmarked by the department for 2014-15 for encouraging such facilities is Rs 185 crore, he said.