Mega Food Park
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR

Imphal, June 13 2019: Commerce & Industries Minister Thongam Biswajit Singh has said that all preparations have been made for setting up a Mega Food Park in the State.

He made the statement during a coordination meeting which was held in his Secretariat office chamber today.

Biswajit said that the Mega Park, the first of its kind in the State, will provide 1500 direct employment to the local youth in its units and upon its completion, the park will also have a 1800 MT cold storage facility, and ripening chambers for locally produced fruits and vegetables.

Eight primary processing centres will also be located in selected districts as part of the park.

The park will also have dehydration facilities to make ginger/turmeric/chilli powder and paste making, fruit juice making facilities, etc, he added.

According to officials, the machine for packaging fresh juice called aseptic brick filling, popularly known as tetra pack, which is expensive, will be made available to the entrepreneurs inside the park.

The park will have 40 plots for entrepreneurs and 50 percent subsidy will be provided by the Central Government for food processing units installed inside the park.

The park will also have a food quality control lab for quality certification of the food products produced inside the park as well as other parts of the State, the Minister added.

The meeting was attended by additional Chief Secretary (Works), Suhel Aktar, Principal Secretary Textiles, Commerce and Industries P Vaiphei, Director, Textiles, Commerce and Industries C Arthur W, Manipur Food Industries Corporation Ltd, Nilakuthi Managing Director Peter Salam, Deputy Commissioner concerned , officials of Power, Works, PHED, Revenue, among others.

Earlier in the day, Biswajit also chaired the Work Advisory Board meeting of Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles and the Directorate of Trade, Commerce & Industries and discussed finalisation of the work programmes for the year 2019-20.During the meeting held in his office chamber, the board approved several work programmes for the two directorates.

The work programme for Directorate of Handloom and Handicrafts was proposed in two phases with the first phase including seven projects and the second phase including two works.

The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary Textiles, Commerce and Industries P Vaiphei, Director TC&I C Arthur W, Director Handloom Lamlee Kamei, Deputy Secretary TC&I Peter Salam, MANIDCO MD SI Sharma, Joint Director Handloom and Handicraft E Jeeten Singh among others.

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