By IANS
New Delhi : Delhi will spend Rs.10 billion to modernise and redevelop several major markets dealing with farm produce, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said Thursday.
Dikshit announced that a committee has been set up to modernise the fruit and vegetable market at Tikri Khampur area in northwest Delhi, in an area of 225 acres of land.
"The issue of acquiring land will be taken up with the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). The Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) is also upgrading the grain market in Narela and setting up an automatic chicken dressing plant to avoid dirty and unhygienic way of slaughtering," Dikshit told reporters here.
The chief minister said around 30 percent of fruits and vegetables go waste due to non-availability of modernised cold storage and lack of better transportation.
Dikshit hoped that Delhi would become the No.1 distribution centre of fruits, vegetables and other products in the world in the coming years.
Development Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said APMC would come up with a grading laboratory to test samples of fruits and vegetables.