The Union Government has included two newly developed state of art industrial areas Pandoga in District Una and Kandrori in District Kangra in the consolidated list of Designated Food Parks under concessional credit scheme of NABARD.
Chief Secretary B.K. Agarwal claimed the matter was raised with the Secretary Ministry of Food Processing in a meeting last month, and now the GOI has conceded the request. This would give fillip to the industrial activities in the state and would attract more investors to state, Agarwal believed.
He said that after the notification food/agro processing units to be set up in these state of art industrial areas in Pandoga, Kandrori and Biotechnology Park at Auduwal these food parks will be eligible for concessional credit from NABARD, and subsidy of 50% of the project cost subject to a maximum of Rs 5 crores under Kisan Sampada Yojna of GOI.
Chief Secretary further said that these units will also be eligible for grants in aid under the schemes of State Mission on Food Processing. He said that this would prove a milestone in harnessing the surplus of local produce as districts Una, Kangra and Solan were rich in horticulture produce like kinnoo, litchi, mangoes, peas, potatoes, tomatoes etc. He said that this would not only boost food processing industry in the state but also generate employment opportunities.
Agarwal informed that these state of art industrial areas and BT Park would be the main attractions in the upcoming Global Investors Meet at Dharamshala to be held in June 2019 and Food Processing Sector would be the main focus during the meet and sectoral sessions would also be held on this sector during the meet.
Chief Secretary said that the Ministry has already approved setting up of Agro Processing Cluster at Salol village in district Kangra. This would be set up on 10 acres of land with an investment of Rs 24 crore with facilities like milk chilling, multi commodity cold storage, ware house, pasteurization, sorting, grading and packing having total employment potential of 400 persons. It would also have 5 processing units with total investment of Rs. 56 crore, he added.
Chief Secretary said that all these endeavours will go a long way in benefitting local people and farmers thereby strengthening their economy.
