Seafood Sector to Get Major Boost with KSIDC’s New Mega Food Park

KOCHI:
The seafood processing sector is poised to get a major boost in Kerala with the launch of the Mega Food Park (MFP) of the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) at the Industrial Growth centre (IGC), Pallippuram,Cherthala, in Alappuzha district.
Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Minister for Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal will jointly lay the foundation stone of the project at 4 pm on June 11, 2017 at IGC Pallipuram. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Minister of State, MoFPI, Govt. of India, A.C.Moideen, Minister for Industries, Sports & Youth Affairs and P. Thilothaman, Minister for Food & Civil Supplies will deliver the special address.
K.C.Venugopal, MP,A.M.Ariff, MLA, Dr. Christy Fernandez, Chairman, KSIDC,G Venugopal, President, Alappuzha District Panchayath, Veena N. Madhavan, District Collector, Alappuzha, Nirmala Selvaraj, President, Thykkattussery Block Panchayath, Shilja Salim, President, Chennam Pallippuram Grama Panchayath, Sindhu Vinu, Member, Alappuzha District Panchayath, P.D. Sabeesh, Member, Thykkattussery Block Panchayath,K.K. Ramesan, Member, Chennam Pallippuram Grama Panchayath and M.T. Binil Kumar, CEO, Mega Food Park, KSIDC will also be present.
KSIDC officials said the MFP will be the ideal location for processing a variety of food products, particularly seafood products.The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) has issued final approval for the Mega Food Park, which is being established over 65 acres of land.
The park is being set up at a total outlay of Rs130 crore, comprising of an equity contribution of KSIDC/state government worth Rs70 crore, a grant-in- aid from the (MoFPI) of Rs 50 crore, and a term loan of Rs 10 crore.
KSIDC will create the basic enabling infrastructure at the MFP and also set up pre-processing centres (PPC) at 3 locations at Thoppumpady, Vypeen and Munambam. Two other locations at Neendakara and Aroor will be treated as Collection Centres.
The basic enabling infrastructure includes a compound wall, site development, internal roads, storm water drains, electricity and water supply. The specific infrastructure developments proposed are standard design factory, common facility centre (admin area, recreation area, lab facility, etc.), warehouse, cold storage, deep freezer, common ETP, and a deboning and canning centre. In addition to this the PPCs are to be equipped with facilities for pre-processing.
On compliance of the terms (award of work contracts equivalent to 30% of the total project cost i.e., 50 crore and expenditure of 10% of the project cost) the first installment of 30% of grant-in- aid amounting to Rs15 crore was released to KSIDC in two instalments (Rs 10 crore on 30-09- 2016 and Rs 5 crore on 31-12- 2016).
Present status:
Land development has been completed, the compound wall is completed except for 240 meters and work on internal roads and storm water drains is progressing. Works are also progressing on common facility building and warehouse, and the effluent conveyancing pipeline work has been awarded to Irrigation Infrastructure Development Corporation.Land for one PPC has been obtained from the Cochin Port Trust at the Thoppumpady Fishing Harbour.
The total expenditure till date for the project is Rs 27.73 crore including the cost of land (Rs 7.70 crore).
The park which is equipped with international facilities also uses world class waste management technologies. Beyond this it focuses mainly to export the processed seafoods. 33 companies have already approached KSIDC for this kind of food processing units in which 19 of them got the approval by allowing 33 acres of land for the units. The major seafood processing industries in Kerala has already started their construction in the allotted land. The 50 crore park’s construction activities which will be completed in different stages will be expected to be fully functional by June 2018.