Patanjali Ayurved successfully bids for 230-acre food park at Nagpur’s MIHAN

Yoga guru Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved has successfully bid for setting up a modern food park in the Multi-modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN), setting the stage for Patanjali to set up a `food, agro and herbal park' on 230 acres in the undeveloped part of MIHAN land.

Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC), which is tasked with the job of developing MIHAN, had earlier floated two global tenders (in May and July 2016), but failed to get any bidder.

In the third call, MADC received Patanjali Ayurved as the technically qualified bidder, the state-run agency said in a release on Friday.

''The Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) has received Patanjali Ayurved Limited as technically qualified bidder and has opened the financial bid,'' MADC managing director Vishwas Patil has said a press note.

MADC decided to develop agro, food, herbal and forest-based industrial park on a sprawling 230 acres of land in Mihan as 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 Rs300 crore per annum from agro, food, herbal and forest-based processing business in the last three years. Also, their net worth should be Rs75 crore in the last financial year, the release said.

Patanjali, an 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 Rs100 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.

Patanjali will have to pay at least Rs25 lakh per acre for the land. In the MIHAN's SEZ area, the going cost is Rs60 lakh per acre. ''That is on account of fully developed within SEZ, something unavailable for the undeveloped land,'' MADC officials said.

Patanjali Ayurved said it has received approval from Madhya Pradesh to set up production unit. Madhya Pradesh finance and industry minister Rajendra Shukla has handed over letter to Patanjali Ayurved managing director Acharya Balkrishan in this regard, the company said in a statement.

"Patanjali would soon set up a food processing unit in Madhya Pradesh... . It would also help the local farmers by providing fair price for their products," said Rajendra Shukla.

Patanjali, as per its growth plans has ambition to set up food processing units in all major regions of the country to meet its growing demand.