Goyal reviews storage plan for essential commodities

Union Minister for Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Railways & Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal recently reviewed the storage plan for essential commodities in the country. He informed that Expression of Interest (EOI) has been called for the development of cold chain facility for perishable commodities, including onions through private entity. He mentioned that the modern, costefficient storage infrastructure at the grassroots level and at the block level is great way to increase farmers' income. In India, warehouses are spread over different undertakings and authorities at 20,433 locations. They include Railway Goodsheds-7400, Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Principal & submarket yard- 7320, Food Corporation of

India (FCI)-545, Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC)-422, State Warehousing Corporation (SWCS) 2245, National Seeds Corporation Limited (NSC), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), National Cooperative Consumers' Federation Of India Limited (NCCF)-73, CONCOR-60+, cooperatives- 2000+, warehouses with state governments, Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited (HAFED) -100+, Highway Logistics Park (under process) -35, Inland Waterways Complex-8, Ports-200+ Airports (cargo)-25, where warehousing infrastructure of required type and size can be developed, upgraded or modified converted for safe storage of

essential commodities.