Hyderabad, December 29: With the increase in agricultural production every year, the requirement for storage space is going up in the State. To address this need, the AP State Warehousing Corporation (APSWC) is coming up with 14 new warehouses with a capacity of 5.56 lakh metric tonnes by November next year. This is in addition to the existing 21.5 lakh MT of storage space available with the corporation.
Under the Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee (PEG) scheme of the Central government, a three-member committee comprising officials from the APSWC, the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) have finalised tenders for construction of 14 godowns across the State.
Private entrepreneurs will build the godowns and lease them out to the SWC which will assure them a minimum lease period of 10 years. While the CWC cleared the proposals for construction of nine godowns, three proposals were sent to the High Level Committee at the CWC.
Construction of the other two godowns will be taken up by the APSWC.
The godowns will come up at Bobbili, Bikkavolu, Bapatla, Dwarapudi, Mypadu, Jangaon, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Sultanabad, Mellacheruve, Bhogir and Palakol.
“We have followed the most transparent method in finalising the tenders and uploaded the entire process, including video footage of tender process, on the website of the Centre for Good Governance.
The FCI has also appreciated our tender process which saved a lot of money for it,” said APSWC managing director S Balasubramanyam.
–Agencies