The mega seafood park being set up by the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) at the Industrial Growth Centre at Pallippuram near Cherthala is nearing completion.
At present, three seafood companies and a packaging unit are operating in the food park.
“The land in the park will be given to entrepreneurs on a 30-year lease.
Twenty-eight plots have already been taken over by various entrepreneurs. With the completion of the park, an investment of ₹500 crore is expected. Once fully operational, the park would generate about 3,000 direct and indirect jobs.
It will have food processing activities and value-added food production,” officials said in a statement.
Govt. equity
The seafood park is being constructed on 68 acres of land at a cost of ₹128 crore, with equity contribution from the KSIDC/State government worth ₹72 crore, grant-in-aid of ₹50 crore from the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) under the Mega Food Park Scheme and rest is a bank loan. The park has three components - a central processing centre for seafood collection, grading, quality inspection, freezing unit and cold store; a primary processing centre for seafood peeling, cleaning, sorting and ice planting from harbours; and collection centres. The primary processing centres at Thoppumpady, Vypeen and Munambam will also be connected to it.
The park is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities like a warehouse, cold storage, deep freeze, deboning centre, fresh water among other facilities. The construction of a 3,000-metric tonne cold storage, a deep freezer with a capacity of 10-metric tonne per day and a deboning centre with a capacity of 10-metric tonne per day for fish thorn removal is in the final stages, the statement said.
Fresh impetus
The project is expected to give fresh impetus to the seafood processing and marketing sector, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to officials, seafood exports declined by 23.96% during the April-August period compared to the corresponding period last year.
Export earnings declined by 13.96% in the same period.
In the next phase, the project will be expanded with another 16 acres.
Meanwhile, protest is brewing against the laying of a pipeline from a wastewater treatment plant in the park to Kaithapuzha Lake.
A protest proclamation convention organised under the aegis of the United Democratic Front on Friday urged the government to stop the work to direct wastewater into the lake.
It was inaugurated by Shanimol Usman, MLA.
Officials, however, said that only treated water would be let into the lake.
