The first mega food park in Western India under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries will be launched at Shirwal in Satara, about 55 km from Pune, on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the chairman of the Food Park Pradeep Chordia said that the investments will be about Rs 120 crore for the common facilities and will leverage investment of about Rs 500 crores in processing units. “The Central Government will contribute Rs 50 crore towards common facilities in the mega food park. The Park will also be setting up collection centers in Pune and Satara and will have mobile collection centres for other locations,” he said.

The Food Park will be inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Subodhkant Sahai while Union Minister for Agriculture and Food and Civil Supplies Sharad Pawar will preside over the function. State Finance Minister Dilip Walse-Patil will also be present.

Chordia said that the mega food park scheme will be a boost to small and medium food processing units. “Western Agri Food Park is modeled on the lines of creation of a three-tier structure for value adding infrastructure in food producing clusters in the country. It will also cover activities related to backward integration (like collection centres, primary processing centre), processing and market for agriculture produce”.

Chordia further said that apart from Chordia Food Products, Western Agri food Park will have Pravin Masalewale, Akruti City Ltd, Ashoka Builders Nasik Pvt Ltd., Poona Dal and Besan Mills as other promoters. “Farmers and SMEs will also be the stakeholders in the company. Apart from benefiting farmers in Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and other centres in Western India, the food park is also expected to generate direct and indirect employment for around 15,000 persons.”

The Food Park will have common processing facilities for seasonal fruits and vegetables, washing, sorting and grading facility, storage facility, quality control lab, pre-cooling units, packaging facility, and basic infrastructure facilities like water treatment plant, electric sub-station, conference hall, guest house etc.

A special knowledge centre of the food park will be situated at Shindewadi on the outskirt of Pune on Banglore-Pune Highway. It consist of a business centre, incubation centre and a research and development centre.