Centre to decide soon on Koraput mega food park

Business Standard, May 9, 2011

The Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) will take a decision on setting up of a mega food park in Koraput district of Orissa within next three months.
"The Koraput mega food park proposal is under our consideration.The ministry is examining the expression of interest (EoI) proposals sent bysome promoters last month. A special purpose vehicle will prepare the detail project report and will see the viability of the project. The entire process can take about two to three months, , said S K Nanda, under secretary with MoFPI whileattending a workshop on food packaging here recently.

He said, some promoters have expressed interests to set up a mega food parkin the Koraput region, but the ministry has to see whether it is situated near a farm product market or not, which is a key parameter to set up a food park. The Mega Food Parks Scheme (MFPS) is the flagship program included in the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The scheme envisages a cluster-based approach for the food parks, which will have facilities like food processing centres and collection centres close to farm fields.
"The cluster would be selected very carefully on the basis of agricultural and horticultural surpluses available in the catchment and take into account the logistics and processing infrastructure", according to food park guidelines of MoFPI.
The Central government official was also skeptic about the capability of investors from Orissa to arrange capital investment for such projects.
According to MFP scheme, the government of India will provide half of the total cost of the project with a maximum investment of Rs 50 crores.