New Delhi, Dec 14 : The Union Government has approved a new scheme to establish 30 Mega Food Parks with a view to provide state-of-the-art infrastructure for food processing sector in the country during the 11th plan.

Union Food Processing Industry Minister, Subodh Kant Sahay revealed this information in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

In written reply, Sahay said infrastructure would be developed on a pre-identified cluster basis with a strong backward and forward linkage and to provide value addition of agricultural commodities including poultry, meat, dairy, fisheries etc in a demand driven manner.

"Financial assistance has been enhanced to 50 percent of project cost excluding land component in general areas and 75 percent in difficult areas, subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 crore for setting up of mega food parks," he said.

Sahay informed the house that in principle approval has been accorded in case of setting up of 10 mega food park projects in the Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

"Detail Project Report (DPR) in case of Andhra Pradesh (Chittoor), Assam (Nalbari), Jharkhand (Ranchi) and Uttarakhand (Haridwar) has been approved and 1st instalment of grant has been released in these areas," Sahay said. (ANI)