M'rashtra nod to Bapgaon market project

Maharashtra cabinet today cleared the proposal to develop terminal market project at the cost of around Rs 200 crore at Bapgaon near Bhiwandi on public private partnership (PPP) model.

In order to give farmers better price to their produce, Central government decided to develop terminal market across the country and also adopted the model act which allowed to create parallel structure to the agriculture market produce committees (APMCs) in 2004. The act also allowed the scope for contract farming. Presently, farmers have no choice but to sell their produce through APMCs.

The state legislature cleared a similar law last year, paving the way for development of terminal market. The state government's agriculture marketing department subsequently identified the 92 acres of land at Bapgon near Bhiwandi for development of the market.

The market will be fully air-conditioned increasing the shelf life of vegetables and fruits traded here, besides this it will have other facilities like grading, sorting, storage. It will also have pre-cooling units to facilitate the export of agro commodities.

The expression of interest have been invited for development of the terminal market. The promoter will have to put equity of 30 per cent in the project, 25 per cent will be given to promoters as a grant by state and Central government and rest will have to be raise through the market.

The state cabinet gave its nod to the proposal of Maharashtra Timber Industries to set up Imported Timber Conversion Zones (ITCZ) at Kalyan in the Thane district on the lines of similar zone at Kandla in Gujarat.

In this zone only imported timber will be processed and processing of indigenous timber is not allowed, which will protect state's forests.

The state is expected to earn around Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore of VAT and Central government will earn import duty of similar amount through this zone. And it will create around 20,000 direct and indirect jobs for locals.

Besides this state cabinet also cleared the proposal to raise Rs 2,044 crore through open market borrowings to support the state's annual plan.

The state's annual plan has been fixed at Rs 20,200 crore by the planning commission and the state has decided to raise around 10 per cent of the required funds through open market borrowings.