Incepted over eight years back and ‘re-inaugurated’ last year, one of the first Mega Food Park of the country, coming up at the outskirts of Ranchi is still on papers.
The latest issue coming in the way of making the Park operational is related to source of water supply to it without which no unit can come over there and made operational.
The management of the food park is of view that since the units are adjacent to the Gaitalsud reservoir and water table of the entire area is so high; it should be allowed to source its water from the dam itself.
“It has been mentioned in the agreement itself and the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department has no objection to it. But the Water Resources Department (WRD) is saying that we should build an intake well and draw the water from there only. The JMFP would have to invest another Rs 10 crore for building the intake well which is of no use. Even seepage of water from the dam is so much and water table is very high. The officials are just toeing the line of the rulebook and not willing to become practical in a decision which is appropriate and in sync with ‘ease of doing business’ thing,” said one of the promoters.
The entire food park needs 1.2 MlD of water daily to run the units coming up there and the WRD is sticking to the condition to source it only from the intake well built. The well would not be covered any bank loan since it was not a part of the DPR.
“This is right that Patanjali has deposited Rs 1.5 crore as fee and has intended to setup a tomato puree and paste unit and also for frozen peas, jackfruit and corn. But again, the JMFP has struck with red-tapism of its own kind which has been coming and hounding the food park time and again,” an official related to the project quipped to The Pioneer.
Future of these units and the promoter, which claims that investment of Rs 114 crore has already been made so far at JMFP, hangs in balance with even officials concerned are unsure about its fate. “I cannot say when it is going to start. NABARD has sought for collateral (before funding the units) for that a meeting in Delhi has taken place in Tuesday. Also, some issue related to building a common effluent treatment plant is to be sorted out,” said Industry Director K Ravi Kumar.
When contacted, WRD Principal Secretary Sukhdev Singh expressed unawareness about this.
However, the promoter and other investors went on listing host of other issues. “NABARD has been allotted with Rs 2000 crore for providing loan to the units coming up there. Not a single unit has been funded so far. We are also fighting for waiver in the electricity duty which has been promised in the policy. The food park is coming up in the industrial zone and it the responsibility of the Government to provide all the required facilities including road, water, power etc. But in the situation like this who would come and invest here,” said another entrepreneur who went on alleging that other food processing projects like one opened on this Tuesday at Nagri, are being promoted at the cost of JMFP “out of some ulterior motives”.
The JMFP is also in the want of 1.5 acre of suitable land at Patratu for setting up primary processing plant which would play as collection centers for the raw produces. Moreover, lands for building five other such units at Gola, Hazaribagh, lohardaga, Domchanch and Belchampa have been identified.