Bhubaneswar, June 17: The general administration department has allotted two acres in Rudrapur on the city outskirts for setting up a slaughterhouse.

This slaughterhouse will be linked to five meat markets in the city with each market having 30 to 40 meat-selling shops. There will be five special vans to carry slaughtered meat from the Rudrapur slaughterhouse to the proposed meat markets.

The civic administration has been worried about the slaughtering of animals and the sale of meat in the open since Orissa High Court asked the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to stop open slaughter.

“The plan will require nearly Rs 15 crore. Since the ministry of food processing industries provides subsidies up to 50 per cent for such projects, we are hoping to get around Rs 7.5 crore directly from the Centre. Our technical consultant, Kerala-based Centre for Environment and Development (CED), has already prepared a detailed project report following the ministry specifications and the model will be implemented in the city,” municipal commissioner Vishal Kumar Dev told The Telegraph.

The civic body has already started the process to take possession of the land in Rudrapur and the project report will be forwarded to the Centre by the end of this month.

Dev said the central ministry prefers the hub-spoke model where the main slaughter house is at the centre and the meat markets surround it. The municipal commissioner said the earlier multiple slaughterhouse plan was changed as it would have needed more veterinary experts, technical persons, more vehicles to carry the slaughtered animals to the retail destinations and also more investment on solid waste management.

Last year, the BMC signed an agreement with an organisation to set up mechanised slaughterhouses in five places — Pandra, Gadakana, Dumduma, Ghatikia and Vani Vihar. It had also given an advertisement for soil testing for the construction of the individual units. However, members of the All India Jamiatul Quresh (AIJQ) have said the plan by the civic body to have meat market complexes with 30 to 40 shops will not serve any purpose.

“Earlier, we had demanded at least 10 slaughter houses at various places in the city so that mutton traders did not have to go to the outskirts to get their animals slaughtered. But now that the civic body has changed its mind again and decided to have a single slaughterhouse at Rudrapur, we will call a meeting of our association and decide the next course of action,” said AIJQ local secretary Seikh Sarjan Qureshi.

At present, there are 300 meat sellers in the capital city.

“The city should also have a ‘lairage’, or temporary rest houses, for animals before taking them for slaughter. The centres should have ramps for unloading of the animals,’’ said Prasad Kumar Pati, a professor at the department of food hygiene, College of Veterinary Sciences, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology. “The lairage is important because if an animal is slaughtered right after transportation, it cannot provide the best meat. When the animal is rested, the blood gets drained out during slaughter. If more blood is retained in the meat, it becomes more prone to microbial action,” said Pati.