BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government has set an ambitious target to increase the cold storage capacity to 7 lakh tonnes by the end of 2017-18, only 30,900 tonnes of additional capacity has been created in the last two years.
A task force constituted by the State Government in 2014 had estimated that 40 percent of the potato production were damaged due to poor handling and storage.
The task force had recommended establishment of 112 new cold storages with a cumulative capacity of 7 lakh tonnes by March 31, 2018 of which 82 would be sanctioned under the State Plan.
However, only six cold stores with a cumulative storages capacity of 30,900 tonnes have been constructed.
The state government has planned to construct 25 cold storages with a total capacity of 1.06 lakh tonnes through private promoters and regulated market committees. These new cold storages are in different stages of construction in 13 identified districts, official sources said.
There is hadly any response private promoters to set up cold storages in the tribal dominated backward districts despite huge subsidy offered by the government. While the subsidy for new cold storages in plain area is 55 percent of the project cost subject to a maximum limit of Rs 2.20 lakh, the subsidy amount is Rs 2.80 lakh for scheduled areas.
The state government has announced to provide subsidy of 50 per cent on electricity tariff for six years for the existing cold storages and the ones to come up by March 31, 2018 for storing potatoes and seed potatoes. Each cold store would have the capacity of 5,000 tonne.
Of the 113 cold storages with a combined capacity of over 3 lakh tonnes in the state, about 80 stores are defunct. The present cold store capacity in the state is about 1.94 lakh tonnes.
The Directorate of Horticulture will submit a proposal to the state government for construction of five cold storages under the National Horticulture Mission, sources in the directorate said.