Debasish Acharya
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 18: In a bid to create proper storage facilities for increasing output of food grains in the state, the state government is setting up another six warehouses, which are likely to be operational by March, 2017. Orissa State Warehousing Corporation (OSWC), the flagship agency in charge of food grain storage, will set up these warehouses through which its dependence on Cover and Plinth (CAP) type of open storage would be reduced, a top official of the corporation said.
“We are setting up six more warehouses in the state to create proper storage facilities for rising food grain output. Work for these warehouses are likely to be completed by March, 2017,” the official. He also said that with the addition of these new warehouses, total count of storage facilities will increase to 70. The official also said that construction work on these warehouses are in full swing and are likely to be completed by the set timeframe. The new warehouses are being constructed under the Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee (PEG) scheme, which will augment storage capacity of Food Corporation of India (FCI) along with state civil supply department.
The official also said these warehouses will be used by FCI and state civil supply department for a contract period of six years. After the contract period, it is likely to be operated under a revenue sharing mode. “While one warehouse will come up at Anandapur in Keonjhar district with a storage capacity of 10,500 tonne, another will be in Angul district with a capacity of 5,000 tonne. Two warehouses are being built in Sundargarh district with a capacity of 5,000 tonne each,” the official said adding that two 2,500 tonne storage facilities are being built in Sakhigopal in Puri district and Bhubaneswar. On the utilisation of warehouses, the official said the corporation has seen 89 percent space utilisation during this fiscal, against 92 percent in last fiscal. Construction of in-house warehouses by FCI and state civil supplies department were the reasons for such degrowth. “The corporation had a revenue of Rs 104 crore in FY15 with a net profit of Rs 20 crore. It has seen a growth of 38 percent in the revenue in FY14 with a net profit of Rs 18 crore,” the official said adding increase in rental income drove revenue growth.