Devendra Fadnavis & Nitin Gadkari Lay Founding Stone For Patanjali Food Park

After grabbing the third position in sales at Future Retail Stores, Patanjali Ayurveda will soon have a food park to its name as well. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation stone for Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Mega Food and Herbal Park in Mihan area in Nagpur.

The 230-acre food park is a breathe of fresh air in the Mihan area, which is infamously famous for a huge number of suicides committed by farmers. The yoga Guru’s venture is said to bring local farmers prosperity by giving them soft loans for the production of various agricultural products. Moreover, the park will also create direct employment opportunities for almost 10,000 youths.

Gadkari in his speech assured all necessary help to the Patanjali group, saying their products will get international market soon due to the connectivity in the area. The upcoming dry port in nearby Wardha would help in this regard, he said.

The state Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and Union MoS for Home, Hansraj Ahir, had assured help in procurement of medicinal herbs from nearby Chandrapur and Gadchiroli forests, added Gadkari.

Fadnavis said Patanjali, which was the sole bidder, had successfully bid when global tenders were floated for setting up the food park at Mihan. Adding that the whole process of procuring the land by Patanjali was transparent. He invited proposals for setting up units in the remaining 270 acres of the total 500 acres, earmarked for Food Park. The Patanjali group got the land or INR 25 lakh per acre, he said.

Patanjali chose Nagpur despite being offered free land in other states, disclosed the CM. The transaction has not been free of controversies, as Former Congress MP Vilas Muttemwar had alleged that Patanjali was given the land at a throwaway price when the market price was INR 60 lakh per acre.

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, adding that this would also be the world’s biggest largest Food Park.