Punjab seeks RIL's investment in food processing sector

The Punjab government today said it has invited Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries to set up a project in food processing sector in the state.
"We have been holding discussions with the Reliance for setting up a project in the field of food processing sector in the state. We want the company to set up a project in an upcoming mega food park at Ladhowal," Punjab Additional Chief Secretary (Development), Suresh Kumar said here today.
The state government is hoping some announcements from the company about the project during an upcoming Progressive Punjab Investment Summit which is scheduled to be held in October this year.

"We are also going to hold a meeting with the officials of Reliance soon in this regard," informed Kumar on the sidelines of seminar organised by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) here today.
"Besides, we are also in talks with the other major companies to invest in the state," he further said.
The Punjab government has decided to hold second investment summit on October 28 and 29 here at Mohali.

Earlier, the state government had organised first such summit in December 2013 wherein it managed to sign pacts for Rs 65,000 crore of investments.
In the first summit, among major companies, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani had announced to invest close to Rs 2,500 crore for building digital infrastructure for the 4G network in the state.

Significantly, the SAD-BJP led Punjab government had terminated an agreement signed with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries for a Rs 5,000 crore farm-to-fork project in the year 2009, saying that the company had not complied with terms of the MoU.
The Reliance Retail, which had signed an agreement with then Congress government led by Amarinder Singh in 2006, had proposed to develop farm infrastructure, including cold storage, logistics etc, with an initial outlay of Rs 500 crore and planned to scale it up to Rs 5,000 crore.
The idea was to develop a business spanning farming and delivering the produce to dining tables.

Meanwhile, state-owned Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC) is coming up with a multi-product mega food park at a cost of Rs 140 crore at Ladhowal im Ludhiana over an area of 100 acres.
"We are ready with Detailed Project Report (DPR) for mega food park which will be submitted with the Centre before July 31 and after that we will get formal sanction for the mega food from the government of India," said PAIC, MD, K S Pannu today.
Under the proposed mega food park, it has been planned to collection centres at village Muskabad (Samrala), Saholi (Nabha), Kangmai (Hoshiarpur),Lalgarh (Samana) and Babri (Gurdaspur).

Besides, the state would also set up five more such centres to develop world-class fruits and vegetables clusters.