3.4-mt silos planned for foodgrain storage

To boost India’s foodgrain storage infrastructure, the food ministry plans to develop silos at 80 locations across the country, with a combined capacity of 3.4 million tonne (mt) of grains. This project will be implemented in public private partnership (PPP) mode.

To build silos, 33 locations have been already identified which are located in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. These silos will be made under the design, build, fund, own and transfer (DBFOT) mode where the land is owned by Food Corporation of India, and via the design, build, fund, own and operate (DBFOO) model, where land will belong to private entities.

Under PPP, wheat silos with a capacity of 11-mt are to be made in the next four-five years at 249 locations across the country, under a new ‘hub and spoke’ model, which will cost around Rs 9,200 crore.

“As land acquisition becomes the most crucial part of the DBFOO project and in order to facilitate the availability of land to the concessionaires, this ministry took up the issue of identification of suitable surplus land, if any, with the concerned state governments,” according to the statement.