Marketing board cancels lease of controlled atmosphere store

The Himachal Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board (HPSAMB) has cancelled the award of a state-of-the-art Controlled Atmosphere (CA) store at Parala, near Theog, to a private company.

The board had leased out the facility to a Jalandhar-based company at an annual lease of Rs 3.36 crore. Devanand Verma, Chairman, APMC Shimla and Kinnaur, said, “There was no option but to cancel the tender as the company failed to make the store functional,” said Verma.

Incidentally, BJP leaders have questioned leasing out the CA store for Rs 3.36 crore per annum, saying the facility should have been leased out for a much higher amount. The 5,600 MT capacity store, along with pre-cooling chambers at Kharapathar, has been constructed at a cost of Rs 60 crore. With the CA store remaining non-functional this year, the marketing board stands to lose significant revenue.

While fresh tenders will be floated to lease out the CA store, some growers are questioning the idea of constructing such facilities with massive chambers as hardly any grower keeps his produce in these CA stores. Besides, they point out that these CA stores are eventually leased out to private players and the revenue generated thus is insignificant compared to the cost of construction.

The HPMC, a government undertaking, rented out its CA stores to private players this year after suffering losses over the last couple of years as the growers showed little interest in storing their produce in these facilities.