Centre approves mega food park in Muzaffarpur

In a major step towards industrialisation in Bihar, the Centre has approved a mega food park at Motipur block of Muzaffarpur district

In a major step towards industrialisation in Bihar, the Centre has approved a mega food park at Motipur block of Muzaffarpur district. An announcement to this effect was made jointly by union agriculture, farmer’s welfare and food processing industries Narendra Singh Tomar and Bihar’s industry minister Shahnawaz Hussain in New Delhi on Monday.

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This would be the first mega food park to be developed by Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA). Earlier, a food park under private sector was opened at Mansi in Khagaria district at a cost of ₹127.60 crores.

Giving details about the project, Tomar said, “An amount of ₹103 crore would be spent on developing the common structure of the plant and it will have 30 industry units. Once these units are established, the park will have ₹300 crore of additional investment. This means that the mega food park will have an investment of ₹400 crore ( ₹103 crore from Centre and state and remaining through investments) and it will generate opportunity for 5000 people.”

The proposal to develop the park was prepared by BIADA under the guidance of chief minister (CM) Nitish Kumar and it will be developed in 78 acres. “The total cost is ₹103 crore, in which ₹50 crore will be provided by the Centre,” said Hussain. “This food park will definitely generate employment opportunities and go a long way in opening the doors for industrialization. I congratulate Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and industry minister Shahnawaz Hussain and I am confident that the project will start soon and help farmers and unemployed youths,” said Tomar.

“The remaining amount of the project will be provided by the BIADA and soon we will start making the DPR,” said additional chief secretary (industries) Brajesh Mehrotra.

The central government had envisaged a project for developing 42 mega food parks, of which 40 had been approved. The Mega Food Park Scheme (MFPS) aims at providing modern infrastructure facilities for food processing.

As on September 2020, the ministry has accorded final approval to 37 MFPs in 23 states/UTs which are under different stages of implementation. Out of this, 19 MFPs are operational. As per the scheme guidelines, each fully operational food park will provide direct/indirect employment to about 5000 persons.

The scheme has the primary objective of providing modern infrastructure facilities for the food processing along the value chain from the farm to the market. It will include creation of infrastructure near farm (i.e. collection centres and primary processing centres), transportation, logistics and centralised processing centres etc. This will have an impact on increased realization of farmers, reduction in wastage and creation of an efficient supply chain backed by collection centres, primary processing centres and logistic infrastructure.