Patanjali mega food park: Centre to give 15 days more time

New Delhi: The Centre has decided to give 15 days more time to Patanjali Ayurved for meeting conditions like acquisition of land, required for the final nod for setting up of the proposed Rs 6,000-crore mega food park in Uttar Pradesh.

The deadline to meet the required conditions will expire tomorrow (June 15). The Uttar Pradesh government has requested the Union Food Processing Ministry to give more time to the leading FMCG firm and extend the deadline till June 30.

"Since the company is already taking action and requested for 15 days extra time to meet the conditions, the ministry will grant the time as requested. There is no issue in that," Food Processing Secretary J P Meena told PTI.

The issue will be placed before the Inter-Ministerial Approval Committee of the ministry, he said.

Meena further said, "Our aim is to make sure the project comes up. We are not looking for reasons to cancel it. We will grant 15 days extra time".

The Haridwar-based company had proposed to invest up to Rs 6,000 crore to set up a plant over 425 acres of land along the Yamuna Expressway through its step-down firm Patanjali Food and Herbal Park.

The conditions that were to be complied with include acquisition and transfer of land in the name of Patanjali Ayurved's subsidiary.

On June 6, Patanjali had said that its mega food park would produce goods worth Rs 25,000 crore annually on full capacity running. It is envisaged to create 10,000 direct jobs.

Patanjali is presently investing in mega food park projects, including in Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Tezpur (Assam).