Chief minister Naveen Patnaik oversees midday meal at a school in Rourkela. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Rourkela, Feb. 25: Around 57,000 school students in and around the city would be provided with nutritious midday meals cooked in a centralised kitchen.

Earlier the meals used to be cooked in respective schools and since school authorities had to be involved in the entire process, teaching was taking a backseat.

Sources said this was the first-of-its-kind activity in the state to provide healthy and nutritious midday meals to studentss. The modern kitchen has been set up by Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP).

The project has been undertaken by the agencies under their corporate social responsibilities (CSR) along with the state government and a non-government organisation, Akshaya Patra Foundation. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the project here on Sunday.

“This is the first of its kind in Odisha with the state-of-the-art facilities set up by SAIL. This project has given a new dimension to the CSR activities of the region,” said SAIL chairman C.S. Verma.

Under the project, the facilities include boilers, rice-cleaning machine, a cold storage, tailor-made utensils, conveyor belts and picking and cleaning facilities. Besides, 20 customised vehicles have been provided to transport cooked food to 431 schools situated in Lathikata and Bishra blocks, along with the Rourkela Municipality area. An RSP official said the steel plant had invested Rs 8.24 crore to set up the facility. “We will also provide about Rs 2.6 crore per annum towards the operational support,” said RSP’s chief executive officer G.S. Prasad.

“The food will be supplied on all school days,” said vice-chairman of the foundation Chanchal Pati Dasa.