(Tribune)
The Union Ministry of Food Processing has given its go ahead to set up five cold storage chains in Uttarakhand.These cold chains have been approved under the Central government’s Cold Storage Chain Scheme under which 75 per cent assistance will be provided by the Centre to private entrepreneurs. They will be set up at a cost of Rs 85.64 crore. Three cold stores have been approved for Udham Singh Nagar and one each for Nainital and Haridwar.
“Farmers face great difficulty in the absence of cold stores especially after harvesting. These units will help the farmers in preserving their crop for a longer period,” said S Ramaswamy, chief secretary.Further, the objective of the scheme is to encourage entrepreneurs to go for value addition. It covers pre-cooling facilities at production sites, reefer vans, mobile cooling units as well as value addition centres, including infrastructure facilities like processing/multi-line processing/ collection centres, etc. for horticulture, organic produce, marine, dairy, meat and poultry.
