A pro-farmer pvt initiative propped up by Centre, State

Tumkur food park will increase shelf life of food items, process them

When the mega India Food Park in Sira taluk of Tumkur is inaugurated at 10 am on September 24 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it will be setting an example as to how a private initiative can take a definite shape if the Central and State governments do their bit to give it an impetus.

The food park – which is going to serve as both a cold storage facility and a processing unit – is a private initiative supported well by the governments. Mumbai-based Future Group has invested Rs 140 crore to establish the plant. In the next two years, when it becomes fully functional, it will be investing another Rs 120 crore. The Centre’s investment is about Rs 50 crore.

The food park project has been implemented by the Special Purpose Vehicle – Integrated Food Park Pvt Ltd, established by the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries. The Centre has planned 30 such parks in the country. The project, which was conceived in 2011, was allotted 110 acres of land by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board, at a village in Sira taluk, 20 km from Tumkur city on NH-4. As on today, the promoters are in possession of 80 acres of land. The Karnataka government is supplying 500 kilo litres of water per day and 7 MW of power to the park.

According to Praveen Dwivedi, CEO of the promoting company, the park is ideally located to source agriculture produce because the park is located on a NH, which leads to major consumption markets of Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. The export potential is also high from these cities. Once the entire park is operational in the next two years, it will create job opportunities for 10,000 people, directly and indirectly, he added. “We consciously selected Tumkur because getting skilled manpower will not be a question. The district has many educational institutions and also it is very close to Bangalore. The biggest beneficiaries will be farmers,” Dwivedi said.

The park will have huge dry warehouses, cold storages and bulk grain silos, multigrain mill and spice mill among various facilities. Fruits and vegetables not only get stored, but are also processed here, according to Dwivedi. The overall expected investment in the campus, including by those renting the facility to do business from here, is projected at Rs 1,000 crore.

The promoters have establishing industry-supporting common facilities like ripening chambers for mango and banana, pulping facility for fruits, freezer facility for fruits and vegetables and cold storage for frozen food products. The warehouses occupy nearly one lakh sq ft to house both raw materials and finished goods.
The company is setting up collection centres in places like Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Doddaballapur, Chamarajanagar, Chikmagalur and Shimoga to facilitate farmers to directly sell their produce to the units that operate from the park.