Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) will prepare a project report for setting up of a mega food park at Malipada near Khurda, about 30 km from Bhubaneswar. It will study the feasibility, plan for infrastructure within the park, formulate promotional and marketing strategies among others. …

The latest initiative of the state government assumes importance as the Union government is encouraging establishment of food processing parks and has already announced a grant of Rs 1500 crore for 30 mega food processing parks in the country by the end of 2008.

Though none of the proposed mega food parks in the country has been notified yet, the state government will send a proposal to the Union ministry on setting up of a food processing in Orissa, said the sources. In case the Union government does not approve the state’s proposal, the state government intends to go on its own to set up a mega food park at Malipada, sources added.

The state government has already identified 80 acres of land at Malipada for this purpose. It will be handed over to the state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idcol) by the district collector of Khurda and the process will be completed within 45 days.

The Union minister for food processing will be invited by the state government to visit the identified location towards the end of November. Besides, steps will be taken to develop a chain of cold storage between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

This was decided at a review meeting on the food processing industries in Orissa chaired by the Development Commissioner (DC) R N Bohidar recently.

As per the Government of India (GoI) scheme, the mega food park need to be built on a minimum area of 100 acres and maximum area of 100 hectares and the grant can be availed in two installments.

Khurda will be a preferred location as it will be closer to the bio-technology park being set up at Andharua near Bhubaneswar which will add synergy to the project.

Sources said, the plans for the development of terminal market or distribution centres at key locations like Choudwar, Berhampur and Sambalpur along with the supply chain of horticulture products in the catchment areas are being worked out by the department of horticulture.

That apart, multi-product cold chain network and the Inland Container Depos (ICDs) at Kalinganagar and Jharsuguda by CONCOR and similar facilities proposed at other places like Rourkela, Bhadrakh and Angul are likely to give a fillip to the sector.

In view of the potential in the food and the agro-processing sector, some sub-sectors have been identified by the state government for development. This includes rice, cashew, spices, mango, marine and fishery, diary and maize.

… According to the official figures, there were 92,417 micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the state by the end of 2006-07 with an investment of about Rs 2825.16 crore. Out of it, 21,298 units were in the food and allied sector with an investment of Rs 803.78 crore. While the MSE sector accounted for about 5,56,908 employment, out of it the food processing sector engaged 1,10,329 persons.