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The National Centre for Cold-Chain Development (NCCD) is revising technical standards and minimum guidelines for cold-chain components which will serve as a road-map for all Central and state government bodies setting up cold chain facilities nationwide, its CEO Asheesh Fotedar said on Wednesday. He was referring to initiatives undertaken by the NCCD, which comes under the administrative control of the Ministry of Agriculture. In addition to the guidelines, NCCD is developing a mobile application to digitise data related to cold chain components. This is expected to increase capacity utilisation, reduce fuel costs, and minimise the carbon footprint. The application will also capture relevant logistic data for policymaking and analytics, Fotedar said at a Ficci conference. Surendra Ahirwar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), asserted that the cold chain sector in India, a vital component of the logistic
Country's largest e-grocer Big Basket, snacks biggie Haldiram, cooperative major Amul, and logistics firm Balmer Lawrie are among the 101-odd firms which today got Centre's nod to set-up cold chain projects across the country entailing an investment of Rs 3,100 crore.The cold chains which are expected to come up in the next 18-24 months could go a long way in lowering wastage of fruits and vegetables. Of the Rs 3,100 crore expected investment Centre would contribute around Rs 838 crore, while the remaining around Rs 2,200 crore would come purely from the private sector.Officials said these cold chains won't be just standalone storages, but would have three distinct phases, starting with on-farm grading and sorting, followed by processing and thereby distribution to end-consumers through specially made refer vans.Announcing this decision, Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said these projects would create additional capacity of 2.76 lakh tonne of cold storage and ...