OREANDA-NEWS. May 12, 2015. Under a pilot project called “Kisan Vision Project”, Container Corporation of India Limited (CONCOR), Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and Central Railside Warehouse Company Limited (CRWC) were asked to provide infrastructure at following locations in addition to Azadpur in Delhi on Indian Railways to encourage development of facilities for setting up of cold storage and temperature controlled perishable cargo centers as well as developing agri - retail outlets to be allotted to different parties  through Public private partnership (PPP) mode.

        The details and the present status of the said projects is as under:-

·         Nasik (Maharashtra): The centre is located at Nasik in Nasik District of Maharashtra. The centre is functional with effect from 23.02.2013.

·         New Jalpaiguri (West Bengal): The perishable Cargo Centre at Bagdogra airport was taken over by CONCOR on 22.02.2011 from Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA) which was functional.  Under the provision of agreement signed between SJDA & CONCOR, SJDA was required to obtain requisite license from State Government authorities. SJDA was not able to obtain the same and the facility is intended to be returned back.

·         Singur (West Bengal):  The Perishable Cargo Centre was made functional on 18.12.2011. However, due to very low utilization, the service provider has abandoned the contract.  Expression of interest for fresh contract for operation and maintenance of the facility has been floated.

·         Dankuni (West Bengal): Central Railside warehouse Company Ltd. has been entrusted with the responsibility of developing Perishable Cargo Centre at Dankuni.

·         Mecheda/ Murshidabad (West Bengal): The Perishable Cargo Centre at Murshidabad (in lieu of Mecheda) has not been found viable as per study taken by CONCOR.

In addition to the above, Central Railside Warehouse Company Limited (CRWC) has been entrusted to carry out the preliminary work such as surveys pertaining to availability of land, feasibility; layout plans etc for construction of temperature controlled storages at 10 locations Vatva, Vishakhapatnam, Badagara, Udhna, Cheriyanad, Bhivandi Road, Azara, Navlur, Kalamboli and Yashwantpura in the country to boost rail movement of fruits & vegetables in different part of the country. CRWC has been allowed a maximum of two years of gestation period from the date of executing individual agreement with the Railways for construction and operationalization on the ware houses complex.

At Nasik 3257.78 Metric Tonnes cut flowers and fruits were stored during the last year. The Perishable Cargo Centre (PCC) at Kela Godown, New Ajadpur is located in the vicinity of Adarsh Nagar Station where huge quantity of banana is coming by rail. The storage is able to provide the linkage to banana/mango traders to keep these fruits in cold store chambers/ripening chambers which are being transported by rail/road. The PCC has been commissioned by Hon’ble Minister of Railways on 24.03.2015.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.