FCI to spend Rs 120 cr to up storage

Food Corporation of India (FCI) will add about 4,35,000 tonne additional storage capacity during the Tenth Plan period (2002-7), a government official said on Tuesday.

The country's nodal grain procurement agency will invest Rs 126 crore to raise its storage capacity, the official said.

"Of the 4,35,000 tonne expansion planned, we have already added 3,39,000 tonne till December," the official said.

More warehouses will be set up in the northeastern region and special attention will be given for raising storage capacities of existing warehouses in the north-eastern states, the official said.

The work for identifying new locations in the northeast has already begun. New godowns will be constructed in Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur, the official said.

Food Corporation has joined hands with the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) to carry out expansion in the northeast.

"We (FCI) have mandated the CWC to start work in certain parts of the northeast," the official said. CWC has already started work on the upcoming warehouses at Lunglei, Lawngtalai, and Bualpui in Mizoram and Chandarpur in Tripura.

In Assam, contracts have been finalised for one warehouse in Senchowa while tenders have been floated for two other places "� Chaulkhowa and Badarpurghat "� in the state, the official said.

"We have already completed construction of warehouses of 2,500 tonne each at Jiribam in Manipur and Dimapur in Nagaland," the official said.

"Construction of new warehouses and augmenting capacity of existing godowns could not have been better timed as we have geared up to buy wheat from farmers," the official said.

The government plans to buy 16.2 million tonne of wheat this year compared with 14.8 million tonne last year.

The government started buying wheat in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan from March 15 while procurement started in important states like Punjab and Haryana from April 1.

The wheat is being bought at Rs 650 a kg.

India is likely to produce 73 million tonne of wheat compared with 72 million tonne last year. In the country, the government buys grains at state-fixed intervention price to ensure better returns to farmers.