Govt allots 230 acres in Nagpur to Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd for setting up of food park

Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, founded by yoga guru Baba Ramdev, has successfully bid for setting up a modern food park at Mihan, Nagpur. [caption id=“attachment_2222790” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Baba Ramdev in a file photo. PTI[/caption] Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) earlier floated two global tenders (in May and July 2016), but failed to get any bidder. In the third call, MADC has received Patanjali Ayurvedmas the technically qualified bidder, the state-run agency said in a release on Friday. MADC has decided to develop agro, food, herbal and forest-based industrial park on a sprawling 230 acres of land in Mihan. The project is a part of the company’s efforts to develop the Vidarbha region. According to conditions set by the company, the bidders should have a minimum turnover of Rs 300 crore per annum from agro, food, herbal and forest-based processing business in the last three years. Also, their net worth should be Rs 75 crore in the last financial year, the release said. Patanjali, a FMCG firm headquartered in Haridwar, was found to be the successful bidder, it said. MADC wants a commitment from the park developer to procure raw materials to the tune of at least Rs 100 crore per annum from farmers and members of tribal community living in areas surrounding Mihan. Another condition was that the bidder should make a commitment to train a minimum 1,000 farmers per year across Maharashtra to improve productivity, quality and market intelligence to get them ready for agro-business development.