The Orissa State Co-operative Milk Producers Federation (OMFED) today launched ‘Omfed on wheels’, a mobile catering service, in the twin city of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
The new service, which intends to serve hot and delicious fast food from the counter of a van, was flagged of by S K Sarangi, the managing director of OMFED.
Talking to the media, Sarangi said, the initiative is aimed at sustaining the demand for Omfed products throughout the year. As part of the initiative, twenty one milk booth agents of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar have been imparted training for 15 days in the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), Bhubaneswar on food and food processing.
The entire investment of about Rs 8 to 9 lakh has been made by a private party and Omfed will supply its product to the promoter of 'Omfed on wheel' at market price.
The menu of the mobile fast food counter consist of vegetarian items like paneer pakoda, paneer sandwich, paneer cutlet, paneer roll, dahi bara, curd rice, chhena payesh, mixed vegetable raita, mushroom masala, plain paratha, fried rice, aloo paratha, special vegetable biryani among others. The service expects to cater to the rising demand of the middle class families for hygienic fast food and depending on its response, the service may be extended to other cities like Sambalpur and Rourkela, he added.
Meanwhile, the management of OMFED has initiated steps for starting two new projects to ramp up dairy processing capacity.
Under it, the capacity of the Balasore diary is proposed to be increased to 75,000 liter of milk per day from 30,000 litres at present. Similarly, a new dairy with a capacity of 30,000 litres of milk per day will come up at Salapada in Keonjhar district.
An estimated Rs 4.2 crore is proposed to be spent for expanding the capacity of Balasore dairy and another Rs 3.8 crore for setting up the new dairy at Salapada. Both the projects will be implemented with assistance under the Rastriya Krushi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).
Besides, OMFED will spend about Rs 2.2 crore for setting up an ice-cream plant in Bhubaneswar. The tender for this is likely to be floated in next 3 to 4 days and the work will be completed in a year, Sarangi added.
