Paswan pushes for setting up grain storage units on railways' surplus land

Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday held a meeting with his railways counterpart Piyush Goyal and pushed for fast-tracking a proposal to set up grain storage facilities of over 31 lakh tonnes on surplus land of the Indian Railways at an estimated cost of Rs 2,230 crore.

The meeting assumes significance in view of shortage of storage capacity. Some foodgrains in government godowns are kept in cover and plinth storage, which is not safe during monsoon.

"In a video conference with Piyush Goyalji, we discussed the creation of storage facilities on the surplus land of railways at the earliest," Paswan told PTI.

He, however, did not provide further details.

Currently, the government has a capacity to store 88.5 million tonnes of foodgrains, of which 14.1 million tonnes is cover and plinth (CAP) storage, as per official data.

The government's grain inventory has built up due to record production and procurement in the last few years. The reserves with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) stood at 75 million tonnes as on August 6.