Central Warehousing Corporation to
invest Rs 100 crore to increase storage capacity
(http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-06-24/news/32393450_1_lakh-tonnes-storage-capacity-foodgrains) (07.10.2013)
NEW DELHI: Central Warehousing
Corporation (CWC) will invest Rs
100 crore this fiscal to create 2.10 lakh tonnes of foodgrains storage capacity.
The public sector
undertaking (PSU) had created 2.09 lakh tonnes of storage capacity in 2011-12
fiscal and 1.45 lakh tonnes in 2010-11 financial year.
“We will invest
about Rs 100 crore for creating 2.10 lakh tonnes of storage capacity in the
current financial year,” CWC Managing Director B B Pattanaik told PTI.
Following record
production of foodgrains in the last two consecutive years, the government is
grappling with the issue of foodgrain storage.
The country is
estimated to have harvested a record 252.56 million tonnes of foodgrains in the
2011-12 crop year (July-June) as against 244.78 million tonnes in the 2010-11
crop year.
At present, the
government has a stock of 82.3 million tonnes against the storage capacity of
64 million tonnes.
“Of the total
storage capacity to be added in this fiscal, 70,000 tonnes would be added in
the Decentralised Procurement (DCP) states with an investment of Rs 30
crore,” Patnaik said.
Decentralised
Procurement (DCP) state procures and distributes foodgrains itself and the
foodgrain subsidy is released by the Government of India on a quarterly basis
after distribution of foodgrains by the state government.
The company has also
approved a Corporate Plan 2010-20, wherein it plans to create an additional
storage capacity of about 22 lakh tonne with an investment of Rs 1,395 crore to
generate a turnover of Rs 2,558 crore by 2019-20 fiscal.
Commencing its
business in 1957 with 7 warehouses and a total storage capacity of 7,000 tonne,
CWC today operates 486 warehouses across the country with a total capacity of
10.10 million tonne.