The state would get its first Mega Food Park at Mansi in Khagaria, around 160km east of Patna, as the ghost of Kahalgaon is forgotten.
The foundation stone of the project at Mansi would be laid on Thursday. The Rs 127-crore project, being established under the ministry of food processing and industries' mega food park scheme, will be completed within 30 months, Pristine Mega Food Park CEO Ashish Jha saidtoday.
Delhi-based Pristine Logistics and Infraprojects Private Limited are implementing the project. "The foundation stone of the two big projects will be laid tomorrow," Ashish said. Union minister of food processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal will lay the foundation stone of the food park and Union minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha that of a rail-linked logistics park or a private freight terminal.
"The food park will come up on 70 acres of land provided by Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (Biada) and the freight terminal on 30 acres adjacent to the food park. The terminal will not only provide crucial logistics support to the food park, but also serve as a gateway to the east, connecting Bihar to major destinations," Ashish said.
"Land for the project was given to us by Biada on a long-term lease, wherein common infrastructure would be developed on 30 acres and the remaining 40 acres would be available for setting up food processing units. As per plan, this project will lead to a turnover of Rs 1,250 crore in the years to come, creating employment opportunities for over 10,000 people. Besides, the state government would provide a dedicated 12MW power unit. The state will also see installation of a 1MW solar power plant," the CEO said.
In May, a Rs 150 crore Keventer Mega Food Park chose Jharkhand over Bihar, after a bitter experience.
"We could have been the first to set up a full-fledged food park in Bihar. The state had acquired land at the Industrial Growth Centre (IGC) in Kahalgaon in 2008. But we couldn't get possession of the land after protests by landowners," chairman of Calcutta-based Keventer Agro, M.K Jalan, had told The Telegraph.
After it withdrew from IGC, Kahalgaon, in 2013, the state showed them a plot at Baunsa in Banka but the land was not suited for a food park. Keventer Agro then bought a 54-acre plot at Kahalgaon for Rs 12 crore and approached the state, asking them to coordinate with the Centre. But the state government did not help and they moved out of Bihar.
"Khagaria poses no such problems," an official at the Khagaria IGC said.
