Mega food parks are on their way. The first five such parks would be set up in Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and the Northeast region in the first phase. They are a part of the ministry of food processing industries? (MFPI) flagship programme for the 11 th five-year plan of setting up 30 such parks.
While the specific areas have not been decided as yet, sources close to the minister of MFPI, Subhod Kant Sahai, said that Ranchi would have one such park. The park in Maharashtra is likely to be in Nashik, while the locations for rest of the three parks have not been finalised as yet.
The feasibility report of such mega food park development, entailing a government grant of Rs 50 crore and encouraging private investment to the tune of Rs 300 crore per park, has been prepared by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), which was appointed by the ministry to identify five regional locations for the first phase of setting up the mega food parks.
Accordingly, the government would soon call for tenders from parties interested in setting up food parks. As the feasibility of these projects have already been established, and a detailed project report has also been prepared by IL&FS, the parks would take off the moment a party expresses commitment to set up the park.
?Five states according to regions have been decided and only the specific clusters are to be finalised now. This would be done soon and then the ministry would invite bids from parties interested to set up mega food parks,? informed a state government official.
IL&FS will also facilitate formation of a special purpose vehicle with the party concerned with setting up the food park and will be the consultant to the party. The total financial outlay proposed for 30 parks in next five years is Rs 1,500 crore.