A total of seven Mega Food Parks in seven states in Northeast India has been approved for financial assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY), Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Prahlad Singh Patel said in Parliament on Tuesday.
Financial Assistance under PMKSY has been approved for 41 Mega Food Parks across the country, one each in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, according to the written reply by Patel in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The minister informed the House the number of Mega Food Parks, Agro Processing Clusters, Integrated Cold Chains, Food Processing Units, Creation of Backward & Forward Linkages, Operation Greens Projects approved for assistance under corresponding component schemes of Pradhan MantriKisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY) for States and Union Territories.
Patel also mentioned that the Ministry of Food Processing industries (MoFPI) has, so far, approved a total of three Agro Processing Clusters, 28 Integrated Cold Chains, 34 Food Processing Units, five Creation of Backward & Forward Linkages and five Operation Greens projects in Uttar Pradesh with estimated direct/ indirect employment of 47946.
The minister further stated that these projects involve grants amounting to Rs 469 crore, processing and preservation capacity of about 19.61 Lakh Metric Ton/Annum and investment leverage of about Rs 1,562 crore. Of these projects, one Agro Processing Cluster, eight Integrated Cold Chains, 21 Food Processing Units, & five Operation Greens projects have been approved since 2019-20.
According to MoFPI, the ministry provides grants in the form of capital subsidy to eligible project proposals, selected on the basis of Expression of Interest issued from time to time, under its component schemes of PMKSY for setting up of food processing / preservation industries including Agro Processing clusters (Mini Food Parks) and Food Processing Units.
PMKSY is not any region or state specific, but demand driven and is implemented across the country including all the regions of Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Bihar and Haryana, it stated in a release.
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