GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday laid the foundation stone of the Centre for Perishable Cargo at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport here for transporting perishable agricultural produce of the state to different domestic and international locations.
Constructed at a project cost of Rs 19.84 crore, the cargo centre, with a 1705 square metre area, will be equipped with cargo handling facilities for inbound and outbound cargo, cold storage along with other amenities to export agricultural perishable goods, an official statement issued here said.
The state government will contribute Rs 50 lakh for the cargo centre while rest of the project cost will be borne by the central government.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that the state’s farmers have been deprived from getting right prices for their products owing to dearth of mechanism to sell their goods at different places of the country and abroad.
“Once completed, this centre would revolutionise the agriculture sector of the state. The state government is taking steps to improve communication and other infrastructure along with facilitating industrial growth and all measures have been taken to promote agriculture as a respectable means of livelihood so that more and more youths take up farming as a profession,” he said.
The chief minister said that all agricultural products produced by state’s farmers have been covered by the cargo system for selling at national and international markets.
“The process has been started to sell fruit and vegetables of Assam at the markets of London, Singapore, etc and efforts are on to expand to the markets of Europe, America and South East Asia,” he said.
The chief minister further said the central government’s UDAN scheme has facilitated both domestic and international cargo flights while the Act East Policy has given new impetus to commercial ties between India and South East Asian countries.
“If the agriculture sector can be encompassed by these initiatives then the farmers’ living standards here will get better,” Sonowal said.
The state government, he said, organised the Global Investors’ Summit here to give impetus to industrial growth while the central government has allotted funds for development of the Northeast region which has motivated youths to achieve success in different fields.