Floriculture Infrastructure Park To Come Up Near Hosur

A floriculture infrastructure park is being planned for the Hosur belt in Tamil Nadu, with the state government proposing a restructured project to provide basic facilities to cut-flower growers there.

The new-look project would focus on providing better handling and logistic facilities and its size had been trimmed to 200 acres against 300 acres envisaged earlier, Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (Tidco) managing director D Manivannan said here on Tuesday.

Manivannan said the cost of the project has been cut to Rs 20 crore from Rs 60 crore planned initially, by shrinking the project size and delinking the Chennai airport perishable storage (CAPS) project as a separate venture.

 

While the floriculture infrastructure park (FIP) project would be promoted with private participation, the perishable storage project would be jointly developed by the Airport Authority of India and industry associations, he said. The infrastructure park would be designed with in-built facilities such as common grading, packing, pre-cooling, cold storage, plant quarantine and customs clearance in one place, which would be available to cut-flower units promoted inside the complex and other units in Hosur-Doddaballapur region.

Manivannan said private participants in the park project would be required to pump Rs 5 crore into its Rs 10 crore equity, and the remaining Rs 10 crore would be raised in the form of debt.

A workshop will be held in Hosur on August 31 to discuss the findings of the feasibility report on the project and would finalise the private partner by September this year. Operations at the project would commence by August next year, he added. The park, which would house 10-15 floriculture units, would offer land, water, demonstration farm, laboratory, guest house, commercial complex and stores with its management providing technical advise and research and development services, Manivannan said. Transport facilities would also be provided to cut-flower growers in the area, from Hosur to airports in Bangalore and Chennai, connecting important markets such as Europe, Far-east, West Asia and Singapore.

The park would help growers to concentrate on flower growing rather than attending to storage and logistic issues, he added.

At a later stage, the park would also be in a position to enter into contracts with airlines, for ferrying the flowers in a cost-effective way, he said. Units at the park may use a common brand name. Manivannan said Tidcos interaction with airlines revealed that the Chennai airport was set to become the hub of cargo transport in the region.

The development institution would promote a Rs 8 crore perishable goods storage complex at the airport to cater to exporters of flowers, fruits and vegetables, marine foods and other time-sensitive products, he said.

The 36 flower units in Hosur produced an average of 100 million stems per year and this was expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, Manivannan said, adding that even a 10 per cent share in this would keep the storage complex busy.

The two ventures would be `synergistically linked as the custom clearance, quarantine and cold storage facilities to be offered by FIP would be made available to the growers only by CAPS.

Though Bangalore was nearer to Hosur than Chennai was, the airport at the Tamil Nadu capital offered better facilities and longer runway, essential for cargo export, he added.