Mega food parks coming up in Cherthala, Palakkad.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has announced the setting up of two mega food parks in Cherthala and Palakkad with an investment of ₹250 crore.

The Chief Minister was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of WE Summit 2015 organised by KSIDC recently.

The Cherthala food park, which is being implemented by KSIDC, will exclusively cater to marine food processing sector with common infrastructure facilities such as cold storage, standard design factory, ice plant, reefer vehicles etc. The project is expected to bring in an investment of ₹500 core in three years, he said.

Set up on 65 acres, the project is likely to employ 3,000 persons and provide indirect jobs to 12,000. Individual entrepreneurs can set up their units in the park, he said and added that Kinfra has earmarked 78.68 acres in Elappully and Pudussery villages in Palakkad to develop the Central Processing Centre. The park will cater to units engaged in production of value-added products from coconuts, spices, fruits and vegetables, paddy, cashews etc.

The Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries has sanctioned a grant in aid of ₹50 crore each for the two projects and both the projects will start functioning within three years, he added.

Earlier, inaugurating the Women Entrepreneurship (WE) summit, the Chief Minister pointed out that Kerala has emerged as the leading State in the country in the MSME sector by registering an overall growth rate of 12 per cent.

Like the student entrepreneurship programme, the WE initiative of KSIDC is also expected to usher in new opportunities for women in the State by nurturing enterprising attitude among them, he added.

According to M Beena, Managing Director, KSIDC, the Corporation will take the lead in handholding women-run ventures to scale up their businesses.


HBL