Chief Secretary GC Pati on Saturday asked all concerned departments to expedite their respective works for the Rs 80.17-crore Mega Food Park at Rayagada so that the project would be completed soon.
Reviewing the progress of the project at the State Secretariat, the Chief Secretary asked the project developers to submit a road map for completion and commissioning of the ongoing project indicating timeline against each of the components. MSME Secretary Panchanana Das outlined the issues for discussion.
The Chief Secretary asked the Agriculture Department to take up a definite action plan to link farmers with the park and to mobilise them to cultivate export quality paddy with buy-back arrangements. Similarly, the IDCO was asked to ensure power connection and the developers were asked to install rain water harvesting structures and to be self sufficient in water management without using the ground water.
The park, which is being developed on 50 acres of land with objectives of boosting up food processing and ensuring value addition to agricultural products, comprises components like core processing facilities, factory building & MS&ME sheds, modern paddy processing complex, pack house complex, cold storages, dry warehouse complex, quality facilitation lab and food incubation center and multi fruit processing complex. A Special Purpose vehicle has been formed under the name MITS Mega Food Park ltd with IDCO, BCT, Kevenetor Agro and Expo Biotech as partners.
It was revealed that the MSME sheds have been targeted to be completed by end of this month. Similarly, the under-construction a 10,000-mt-capacity modern dry warehouse has made good progress and is expected to be completed by May 2015. Similarly, modern paddy complex for all 93 mills have already begun. The milling area and husk yard area have already been developed. The 495-metre-long boundary wall has been completed and temporary site office has been set up.
Among others, Development Commissioner UN Behera, Agriculture Secretary Rajesh Verma and IDCO CMD Vishal Dev were present.