Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board will develop India International Horticulture Market (IIHM) on about 537 acres of land at Ganaur in district Sonipat at a cost of Rs1,500 crore.

The State Agriculture Minister Om Parkash Dhankar on Friday said that process for selection of consultant for planning, development, marketing and management of IIHM has been started. This market would provide additional alternatives to the farmers for selling their produce.

Besides, it would provide storage infrastructure to growers for trading their produce like fruits, vegetables, flowers, poultry and dairy products as per their convenience, said he.

The Minister said that IIHM would operate on a Hub-and-Spoke model, wherein market would be Hub-linked to a number of commodity specific collection centers (Spokes), located at key production centers in the State.

He said that the IIHM would also offer a one-stop solution, starting from facility for cleaning, refrigeration, processing, secondary processing, grading, packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables, horticulture and poultry produce. Apart from the above facilities, the market would provide services of cool chains support and facility for storage including ware houses, cold storages, ripening chambers, and storage sheds etc.

Dhankar said that the construction work such as boundary wall, entrance gate, pack house-cum-cold storage facility, covered shed for wholesaler or retailer and internal roads have already been executed at a cost of about Rs30 crore.