5,000 to get jobs in Una food park

Our Correspondent/PTI

Una/New Delhi, February 10

Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Sunday inaugurated Cremica Food Park, which is  the first mega food park of Himachal, through video conferencing.

The park is located at Singan village in Una. It has been set up at a cost of Rs 107.34 crore.

This is the first mega food park operationalised in Himachal Pradesh. The inauguration took place in the presence of Jai Ram Thakur, Chief Minister, Himachal Pradesh, and Anurag Singh Thakur, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Hamirpur.

The Cremica Mega Food Park will benefit people of Una district and nearby districts of Kangra, Hamirpur and Bilaspur.

The park has been set up on 52.40 acres at a cost of Rs 107.34 crore. The facilities, being created by the developer at Central Processing Centre (CPC) of this mega food park, include multi-crop pulping line with bulk aseptic packaging (24 MT/ hour), frozen storage (1,000 MT), deep freeze, dry warehouse, QC laboratory and other food processing facilities.

The park also has a common administrative building for the office and other uses by the entrepreneurs.

Badal said the mega food park would leverage an additional investment of about Rs 250 crore in 25-30 food processing units in the park and generate a turnover of about Rs 450-500 crore annually. It would also provide employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers.

The minister said the modern infrastructure at the park would benefit farmers, growers, processors and consumers immensely and prove to be a big boost to the growth of the food processing sector.

Badal also said the government was fully committed to providing an environment that was smooth, transparent and easy for investors wanting to start an enterprise in India, and in a bid to make India a resilient food economy and the food factory of the world, the government had made food processing a major thrust area of ‘Make in India’.

The ministry is focusing on boosting the industry so that the agriculture sector grows exponentially and becomes a major contributor to doubling the farmers’ income and ‘Make In India’ initiative of the government.

To give a major boost to the sector by adding value and reducing food wastage at each stage of the supply chain with particular focus on perishables, the ministry is implementing mega food park scheme in the country.

In his address, CM Jai Ram Thakur admitted that while Himachal Pradesh was known for its fruits and vegetables, the food processing industry was not developed here. He hoped the mega food park would not only ensure a market for the farmer’s produce, but also give them adequate price for their produce.

MP Anurag Thakur said former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had announced a special industrial package for Himachal Pradesh and that today, 5,998 industrial units with an investment of Rs 34,653 crore were functional in the state, employing more than 4.7 lakh people.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced sops for entrepreneurs setting up units in Himachal till the year 2022.

Akshay Bector, MD, Cremica Foods, appreciating the government’s initiative, said, “It will not only facilitate the food processing industry but also give a new lease of life to our agrarian society.”

He invited other entrepreneurs to take advantage of the infrastructure.

Industries Minister Bikram Singh Thakur and Vice-Chairman of the State Industries Development Corporation Ram Kumar Sharma also spoke on the occasion.

Rs 107.34-cr project

• The Cremica Mega Food Park will benefit people of Una district and nearby districts of Kangra, Hamirpur and Bilaspur.
• The park has been set up on 52.40 acres at a cost of Rs 107.34 crore.
• It will also provide employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers.