Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh inaugurated ITC’s new integrated food manufacturing and logistics facility at Kapurthala, giving a fillip to the state?s food processing sector and strengthening its beleaguered economy.
The facility will also have a wheat mandi unit to procure grains from farmers, besides other FMCG units.
Spread over 72 acres of land, with an initial investment of Rs 1,500 crore, the facility will manufacture ITC’s popular food brands such as Aashirvaad, Bingo!, Sunfeast, YiPPee! and B Natural among others.
Besides supporting farmers, the project will help generate employment in the state, said the chief minister at the inauguration ceremony.
The facility is part of the companys plans to open 20 such food processing units pan India with an investment of Rs 10,000 crore.
Despite the record contribution of the state to the nation?s rice and wheat production, Captain Amarinder underlined the need for diversification, in which the ITC project would play an important role.
The facility would help the farming community transition from the traditional wheat-crop cycle to more lucrative crops, the chief minister said, adding such projects would be instrumental not only in saving the state’s crunched fertile land and water resources but also in boosting farm income.
Referring to the plight of potato farmers, who were forced to dump their produce on the roads because of their inability to sell it at a good price, Captain Amarinder stressed the need to end the crisis with projects like this.
He pointed out that the ITC project would bring new seeds and techniques which would enable the farmers produce potatoes that would find a ready market.
The plant, which would purchase wheat, potatoes and other crops from the region, would bring to the state the much-needed revenue, he said hoping that the ITC Group would also expand its hotels in Punjab.