Speaking to The Financial Express, Tummala Ranga Rao, vice-president of Sifa, said that his association's contribution will be Rs 1 crore. Apeda would be the dominant contributor chipping in with Rs 14.58 crore, KSAIC would be contributing Rs 10.28 crore and Karnataka government would have a share of Rs 3.3 crore in the project.Sources in Apeda said the auction centre was likely to be located at Hebbal in the outskirts of Bangalore. The centre was likely to be fully operational in three years' time, the source said.

Ranga Rao said Bangalore has been chosen for locating the auction centre as most of the floriculture units are located there.Bangalore with its cool climatic conditions and little variations in day and night temperatures, is ideal for floriculture units.

Stressing the importance of establishing an auction centre, Ranga Rao said the current practice among floriculture units in the country was to export their produce to auction centres in The Netherlands from where flowers are auctioned away to customers in different parts of the world.