“We have plans to set up 30 mega food-parks and an official announcement in this regard will be made in the next 10-15 days,” Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries,  told reporters here.

The public-private partnership (PPP) route or special purpose vehicle mode would be adopted for these parks, he added. The centre plans to set up the parks from this year on, the minister said. In the PPP mode, the government would give Rs 50 crore per project as grant for establishing the parks, while the rest would be contributed by private partners.

Rs 50 crore grant

“We are going to give a grant of Rs 50 crore per park. The cost of establishing each park would vary between Rs 100-150 crore,” Mr Sahai said.

The food-parks would create an integrated value chain from the farm gate to the consumer and would envisage complete backward and forward linkages along with common processing facilities, he said. The government would establish 50 cold chain networks, including refrigerated vans all over the country, which would help the farmers enhance shelf-life of their produce and retain their quality, Mr Sahai added.

“We will establish 50 cold chains wherein the government will give a grant of 50 per cent or Rs 10 crore per cold chain and in the 11th Five Year Plan more than 100 cold chains would be established,” he said.  The Centre would also set up abattoirs and dairies and would give a grant of Rs 15 crore per abattoir and Rs 10 crore per dairy, the minister  added.