TN to invest Rs 500-cr for warehouses

The new godowns with a capacity of 4,33,500 tonne will be set up with the modern facilities at 47 places

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday announced construction of 47 storage godowns across the state for agriculture produce at a cost of Rs 500 crore.

With increase in state's agriculture production, and the growing demand for storage, these godowns with a capacity of 4,33,500 tonne will be set up with the modern facilities at 47 places, she said.

Likewise, 15 storage godowns of 125,000 tonne capacity will be constructed through the Tamilnadu Warehouse Corporation. With this, the storage capacity of the Tamil Nadu Warehouse Corporation will increase from the present 633,000 to 758,000 tonne.

Making a statement in the Assembly, she said two silos with 25,000 tonne capacity would come up at Erukkur modern rice mill. At least 1,044 storage godowns would be constructed in the current financial year through co-operative societies, at a cost of Rs 140.89 crore. The computerisation of logistics involved in transporting goods from godowns to fair price shops would be done at a cost of Rs 50 crore. The state has set up a committee for the purpose, led by the chief secretary.

On the financial assistance being provided to agriculture co-operative loan societies, Jayalalithaa said Rs 50 lakh each would be given as cash credit facility to 72 societies under Phase-1.

Stemcell research
The chief minister also announced that Tamilnadu Veterinary University would carry out stem cell research in association with Michigan State University, Virginia; Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Machine and Wakeforest Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

She said a stemcell research centre for livestock would be set up in Tamilnadu Veterinary University at a cost of Rs 6.48 crore for the first time in India.

A new medical procedure called regenerative medicine would be implemented in the state for the first time in the country, to prevent and protect livestock from various diseases.