It will be a federative international-standard project, funded by the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) and its counterparts in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. HSIDC, with 51 per cent stake, will act as the nodal agency.

HSIDC MD Harbaksh Singh told The Financial Express on Thursday that Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and senior state officials are in talks with food processing MNCs like SmithKline Beecham and Nestle. A delegation is expected to visit France to invite MNCs from French Brittany to see the prospects of setting up a multi-product fruit and vegetable processing and preservation park in the Rai area.

Says Singh: ``The proposed processing zone will be different from exclusive MNC parks as here, the thrust will be on ancillarisation so that farmers could diversify into floriculture or horticulture and reduce the area under less rewarding and unremunerative traditional crops.'' Earlier, addressing a press conference at Industrial Model Township (IMT) in Manesar, Singh had said that nearly 1,000 acres of IMT land has already been allotted mostly to Indian and foreign MNCs and some ancillary-generating large- and medium-scale companies. ``Only about 100 acres of the plotted land remain to be allotted. If the remaining plots vary from one acre to two acres, allotment will be done to bigger companies.''

In order to meet the increased demand of smaller IMT plots, the government has notified for acquisition of another 1,200 acres to develop at IMT's phase-II.

Simultaneously 500 acres of land is being acquired - at Badli, near Najafgarh, 1,000 acres in Bahadurgarh, 1,000 acres in the Kundli-Sonepat area and some near Kharkhauda - to accommodate the dislocated industry of Delhi and allot developed land with full infrastructure to the new industry.

All the vacant pockets, measuring about 2,000 acres in land around the Maruti Industrial Estate, Gurgaon, and the vacant HUDA lands in Roz ka Meo Industrial Estate, has either been allotted, or is in the stage of allotting.

Says Singh: ``HSIDC will acquire and develop the new estates out of its own resources. Now all approvals are cleared within a week. Only those units, including dislocated Delhi factories, may have to obtain an NOC from the Haryana Pollution Control Board as the Haryana government will not allow any polluting unit to be set up in the state.'' In a reply to a question, Singh mentions that HSIDC, during the last one and a half years, ``has catalysed about Rs 8,200 worth of new investments in Haryana - an all-time record.''