Uttarakhand agri dept to work on PPP mode

With the PPP models beginning to show some results in the health sector, the Uttarakhand agriculture department has planned to build two tissue culture and two soil testing laboratories through the public-private partnership (PPP) route.

This would be the first time that the agriculture sector would be following such model in the hill state.

According to top officials of the state government, the total investment in the four laboratories will be around Rs 30 crore.

Two tissue culture laboratories one each in Haridwar, and Udhamsingh Nagar districts are being set up on the PPP mode with each facility costing around Rs 10 crore.

The department is also planning to set up two soil testing laboratories one each in Dehradun and Almora costing Rs 5 crore each.

However, the department has not yet identified land for such laboratories. “We have made these plans and rest of the formalities will be completed shortly,” said another government official.

Save infrastructure sector where PPP model has failed to take off, health department has invited investments in seven projects through PPP mode. These include mobile units, cardiac unit, MRI, Nephrology and diagnostic centres. Some of these models are working well, experts said.

The non-availability of land and tough forest clearances are the big bane of the PPP projects in the state. “We will make efforts to take clearances before we actually invite investments in the agriculture sector,” said the official.