The state-owned Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC) is coming up with a multi-product mega food park at Ladhowal in Ludhiana. Over a built-up area of 100 acres, a total of Rs 140 crore will be spent on the project. Under the proposed mega food park, the planned collection centres will be located at village Muskabad, (Samrala), Saholi (Nabha), Kangmai (Hoshiarpur), Lalgarh (Samana) and Babri (Gurdaspur). Besides this, the state would also set up five more such centres to develop world-class fruits and vegetables clusters.
PAIC MD K S Pannu was reportedly quoted as saying, “We are ready with Detailed Project Report (DPR) for mega food park which will be submitted with the Centre before July 31 and after that we will get formal sanction for the mega food from the government of India.”
Apart from this, the Punjab government has also invited Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries to set up a project in food processing sector in the field of food processing in the state. “We want the company to set up a project in an upcoming mega food park at Ladhowal,” says Punjab Additional Chief Secretary, Development, Suresh Kumar.
The state government is hoping for some announcements from Reliance about the project during an upcoming Progressive Punjab Investment Summit, which is scheduled to be held on October 28 and 29 this year at Mohali. The government is also in talks with the other major companies to invest in the state.
Earlier, the first summit was held in December 2013 wherein the government managed to sign pacts for Rs 65,000 crore of investments. Among major companies, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani had announced to invest close to Rs 2,500 crore for building digital infrastructure for the four G network in the state. Significantly, the SAD-BJP led Punjab government had terminated this agreement with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries saying that the company had not complied with terms of the MoU, for a Rs 5,000 crore farm-to-fork project in the year 2009.
Under the Reliance Retail signed agreement with the then-Congress-led government in 2006, the company has ideated to develop a business spanning farming and delivering the produce to dining tables. They had also proposed to develop farm infrastructure, including cold storage, logistics etc, with an initial outlay of Rs 500 crore and planned to scale it up to Rs 5,000 crore.
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