

HYDERABAD: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Sunday announced that the final master plan for construction of Koheda fruit market on 199 acres of land in Koheda village was ready and it has been sent to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for final approval.
Once it is approved, the chief minister himself will lay the foundation stone for the market soon, he added.
Niranjan Reddy, along with Ibrahimpatnam MLA Manchireddy Kishan Reddy, Director of Marketing Laxmi Bai and other officials, inspected the site where the proposed market will be constructed.
Later speaking to the media, the minister said that once completed it will be one of the biggest markets in the country and one of the most modernised fruit markets in the world, with facilities and infrastructure of international standard that will facilitate export of fruits within the country and abroad.
He said that market godowns, logistics park, processing plant, waste management and recycling facility, solar systems, cold storage, ripening chambers, staff quarters, shops for commission agents, sheds, roads and parking infrastructure will be established in the new market.
For export of mangoes, a special vapour heat treatment irradiation plant will be setup in the market, the minister explained.
Due to Koheda’s close proximity to the Outer Ring Road and the proposed Regional Ring Road as well as the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, the new market is bound to achieve prominence, he said.
Observing that the cultivation of horticultural crops needed to increase in tune with the growing demand globally, he exuded confidence in the Koheda fruit market playing a crucial role in the export of fruits in the near future.