Warehouses to create 12.76-mt capacity for FCI

In order to meet the rising storage capacity demand from the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the central and state warehousing corporations will construct 12.76-million-tonne (mt) storage capacity in partnership with private parties.

“The new capacity will be primarily created in the states of Punjab (7.1 mt) and Haryana (3.9 mt). Though, some capacities will also be created in states like Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar and Jharkhand,” said Siraj Hussain, chairman and managing director, FCI. This capacity will be used for storage of wheat and rice. Currently, FCI has a storage capacity of 28.45 mt.

Of late, a rising need has been felt to create more storage capacities since the government has been procuring bumper wheat and rice over the last two years. As on April 1, the government had rice stock of 26.71 million tonnes and wheat stock of 16.12 million tonnes.