Harsimrat Badal inaugurates Ajmer's first mega food park

Union Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal inaugurated the Greentech Mega Food Park Private Ltd, the first mega food park in Rajasthan at Roopangarh Village in Ajmer district on Thursday.

The park has been set up at a cost of Rs. 113.57 crore and will benefit around 25,000 farmers.

Giving details of the project, Harsimrat said "the mega food park, which has been set up in an area of 85.44 acres, would have a central processing centre as well as four Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) at Jaipur, Nagaur, Tonk and Churu".

"The park would also have facilities for primary processing and storage near the farms and would not only benefit farmers of Ajmer but also those of nearby districts of Jaipur, Nagaur, Tonk and Churu as well," she added.

The facilities being created at Central Processing Centre (CPC) of this Mega Food Park include cold storage of 5,000 MT, deep freeze of 2,550 MT, IQF of 2 MT/Hr., dry warehouse for raw materials 2,500 MT + dry warehouse for finished goods of 5,000 MT, silos of 6,500 MT, pack house of 10 MT/Hr, steam generator of 8 MT/Hr and other related food processing facilities.

The Union Minister further noted that "the mega food park would leverage an additional investment of about Rs. 250 crores in 25-30 food processing units in the park and would eventually lead to a turnover of about Rs. 450-500 crore annually".

"The park will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers in the CPC and PPC catchment areas," she noted.

She also said that modern infrastructure for food processing created at the park will benefit farmers, growers, processors and consumers of Rajasthan and adjoining areas immensely and prove to be a big boost to the growth of the food processing sector.

The minister also highlighted how her ministry, under the visionary guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was focusing on boosting the food processing industry so that agriculture sector could grow exponentially and become a major contributor to doubling farmers' income through implementation of projects under the flagship scheme of 'Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana' and 'Make in India' initiative of the government.

The park was inaugurated in the presence of Union Minister of State for Food Processing Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Rajasthan Minister of Industries Rajpal Singh Shekhawat and Minister of Agriculture Prabhu Lal Saini and Ajmer MP (Lok Sabha) Raghu Sharma.