Govt to build wheat silos on surplus govt land on PPP basis at 33 locations in 4 states

New Delhi: The Food Ministry on Thursday said surplus government land has been identified for building wheat silos in public-private partnership (PPP) mode at 33 locations in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

The construction of modern storage facilities like wheat silos is to be built on public-private partnership mode under a new 'hub and spoke' model. The ministry aims to create a 111.12 lakh tonne capacity of silos at 249 locations across the country.

The proposed silos will operate under DBFOT (Design, Build, Fund, Own and Transfer) at FCI's land and DBFOO (Design, Build, Fund, Own and Operate) on the land of concessionaire/other agency modes, through implementing agency Food Corporation of India (FCI).

In the first phase, tenders were issued during April-June this year for the construction of silos of 10.12 lakh tonne capacity at 11 locations on DBFOT mode, and also for 66 locations with a capacity of 24.75 lakh tonne on DBFOO mode.

According to the ministry, as land acquisition becomes the most crucial part of the DBFOO project and in order to facilitate the availability of land to the concessionaires, this ministry took up the issue of identification of suitable surplus land, if any, with the concerned state governments.

With the ministry's sustained efforts, some land parcels have been identified by the state governments for lease/transfer of the same to respective concessionaires under applicable rules, it said.

To date, Punjab has confirmed the availability of government/panchayat land at 26 locations. The state government has also assured to identify land at other locations as well if the Land Bank Data doesn't suffice the requirement of concessionaires.

Madhya Pradesh has identified four locations — Ujjain, Dhar, Guna and Damoh. Two locations — Auraiya and Badaun — have been identified in Uttar Pradesh, while Gujarat has identified one location for the construction of a silo at Banaskantha, it added.

According to the ministry, the identification of surplus government land will be beneficial to prospective bidders for 'Hub & Spoke projects' since the possibility of taking identified land parcels on a lease can be explored. This will prevent delay and difficulties in acquiring private land through purchase, etc.

Hub and Spoke Model is a transportation system, which consolidates the transportation assets from standalone locations referred to as "Spoke" to a central location named "Hub" for long-distance transportation. Hubs have a dedicated railway siding and container depot facility, while the transportation from Spoke to Hub is undertaken through road and from Hub to Hub via rail.

(With PTI inputs)

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