Chandigarh, April 6 (IANS) Haryana Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi on Monday presided over a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries on Infrastructure here to consider setting up a kinnow juice processing plant in Sirsa under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

The meeting underscored the government’s commitment to transforming the state’s fruit economy and enhancing the income of kinnow farmers.

The proposed state-of-the-art plant, announced in the state Budget, will be set up at the Vita Milk Plant premises in Sirsa with an outlay of Rs 26.39 crore. It was emphasised at the meeting that the project, to be developed under PPP mode with a 33-year concession period, is designed to benefit all stakeholders.

Haryana Dairy will provide approximately three acres of land for setting up the juice plant, while the private partner will install the required plant and machinery along with civil infrastructure and undertake operations of the plant. It was decided that the project will primarily focus on establishing a fruit and vegetable processing industry, with the main focus on kinnow juice processing, providing viability gap funding support, if required.

Prima facie, the organisation will set up a fruit and vegetable processing industry and, if required, possibilities of an agriculture-based processing industry may also be explored at a later stage, an official statement said.

Haryana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation Managing Director Rohit Yadav said the state produces approximately 4.40 lakh metric tonnes of kinnow annually, with Sirsa alone contributing nearly 55 per cent of the total output. The new facility will process around 9,000 metric tonnes of kinnow and 12,600 metric tonnes of other fruits every year, generating premium packaged juice.

Importantly, nearly 25 per cent of kinnow production, primarily B-grade fruit that earlier fetched lower prices, will now be utilised for value-added processing, thereby directly augmenting farmers’ income. A key highlight of the initiative is its farmer-centric approach, with procurement of raw material to be made from farmers in Haryana.

Chief Secretary Rastogi emphasised that the project is a model example of convergence between government infrastructure, cooperative institutions, and private enterprise to generate sustainable rural income.

–IANS

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