Nasa Agro to invest `407 crores for industrial park at Fazilka

Daily Post, 18 November 2011, DAILY BUSINESS, Page 3

Nasa Agro Industries Limited (NAIL) has decided to invest over Rs 407 crore to set up an integrated agro industrial park at Fazilka in Punjab, which would create around 13000 direct and indirect employment opportunities for the people of the state. The Screening Committee of Punjab government had last week approved six agri mega projects involving a total capital investment of Rs 1,653 crore. Sanjay Kumar, Managing Director, Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC) said the government had received new proposals to set up mega agro based industries. "Nasa Agro Industries has proposed to invest Rs 407.03 crore to set up an integrated agro industrial park in Fazilka district," he said. The industrial park is expected to have number of agro based industrial units. "Coming up of an industrial park in this area will create additional infrastructure for agro based industries, as Fazilka is primarily an agricultural district," said Kumar. 

Agro industrial project would be set up in approximately 548.34 acres of land in seven revenue estates including Painchanwali, Rana, Jatanwali, Lashkardin, Salemshah and Badha of district Fazilka. 

Out of the total land area, the promoters own 358.34 acres of land and consent agreements in respect of another 82.85 acres of land have been obtained, and another 11.66 acres ownership of the land is through acquisition and contiguity. The remaining 95 acres in village near Khuli- Khera, near Abohar, is proposed to be acquired through the government. 

The main objective of agro park is to address the problems of salinity of water, water logging, unemployment and poverty of the Malwa region. The entire project is expected to provide direct employment to 5000 people and indirect employment to 8000 people. The park would provide common facilities and linkages for smooth running of the upcoming units in the park. 

"NAIL has also proposed to set up a centre of excellence in the park to train farmers, entrepreneurs in the field of allied activities and agro processing. The focus area of development is expected to be grain processing, fish processing, mushroom cultivation and processing, milk processing and handling along with fruits and vegetable processing and handling. "For regular supply of quality raw material, developers would undertake procurement planning, input distribution centre, demonstration farm and other activities. The company would also set up 100 food marts as signature shops and further expansion through franchise arrangement to cover more than 100 outlets in the region has to be done. "The project would be developed in two phases. In Phase-I, Nasa Agro Industries proposes to invest Rs 250 crore from 2011- 16 and the remaining Rs 150 crore in Phase-II in 2016-2021," added Kumar. So far, more than 40 agro based mega projects have been cleared by the government and they are at different stages of implementation as well as completion. These units are likely to invest more than Rs 4,000 crore in the state of Punjab.

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