Bijbehara: Minister for Revenue, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, Abdul Rehman Veeri Saturday said augmentation of marketing infrastructure and market information are powerful ways to ensure good returns for the growers.
The Minister said during a visit to review the construction status of upcoming Fruit and Vegetable Market at Jablipora in Bijbehara. He was accompanied by District Development Commissioner Younis Ahmed Malik, Director Horticulture, Planning and Marketing, Manzoor Ahmed Qadri and officials of Revenue and Horticulture department.
The mega hi-tech Fruit Mandi is being constructed at a cost of Rs 33 crore and is spread over an area of 422 Kanals. It will house state of art cold storage facility, grading packing center, guest house, truck terminal, hundreds of shops and other facilities.
Veeri said the Mandi would be a terminal horticulture market for South Kashmir and will be open round the year.
The Minister directed the officials to go through DPRs of best Fruit Mandis of Asia and execute the construction accordingly.
He took exception of slow pace of work going on at the construction site and asked the officers to speed up the fencing of the site and pace up the execution of other construction works simultaneously.
He asked the officials to improve the connectivity of the Mandi and link it with the four lane Srinagar- Jammu national highway for easy transportation.
Veeri also said various initiatives are underway to optimally tap the potential of horticulture sector in the state and provide better marketing facilities to the farmers.
The Minister termed horticulture as bulwark of State’s economy and said sector provides significant succor to the development process and generation of employment for a large chunk of population directly and indirectly. Veeri said strengthening of this sector would result in strengthening of the economy of the State as a whole.
The officials assured the Minister that it will prove a major attraction for horticulture growers and exporters besides would create employment opportunities for thousand of youth in the area.
