India Food Park (IFP), Tumkur, Karnataka

The India Food Park (IFP), an integrated food processing facility located in the Tumkur district in the Indian state of Karnataka, was inaugurated by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2014.

The food park was developed by Integrated Food Park Private Ltd (IFPPL), a public-private partnership between India’s Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MOFPI) and the country’s leading retail company Future Group. The food park involved an investment of more than Rs10bn ($163.9m).

Food produced at the facility will be sold in the market through Future Group’s retail formats, including Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Foodhall, KB’s Fairprice, Big Apple and Aadhaar.

The integrated food processing project was expected to create jobs for more than 10,000 farmers, producers and agri-entrepreneurs living within a radius of 250km in Kolar, Tumkur and Shimoga.

Site details and location advantages

Future Group chose Karnataka’s Tumkur district as the location for its new food park due to the availability of abundant natural resources and close proximity to major transportation modes.

Tumkur district has more than a hundred rice mills, in addition to other food processing industries. The region within 400km radius of the food park site is known for production of ragi, sunflower, coconut, gherkins, groundnut, maize, jowar, spices, sugarcane and milk.

The India Food Park, located 100km from Bangalore on the NH4 (National Highway) connecting Chennai and Mumbai, is spread across 110 acres of land allotted by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB), a wholly owned infrastructure agency of the government of Karnataka.

India Food Park (IFP) design and facilities

IFPPL has 46 acres of land divided into various plot sizes with fully developed infrastructural facilities, enabling interested parties to set up processing facilities depending on their business needs.

The main components of the integrated food park include the central processing centre (CPC), collection centre (CC) or the primary processing centre (PPC). A supply chain network connects the CC and the CPC to the demand centres.

The collection centres provide the necessary infrastructure for the procurement of food products from the farmers, which are received in reefer vans, and offer washing, sorting, grading and crafting facilities.

The CPC is outfitted with equipment and facilities to provide further processing and distribution of produce. It comprises of a freezer room, individual quick freezing (IQF) facility, sorting and grading line, pre-cooling facilities and banana and mango ripening chambers. Also included is a freezer facility for frozen foods, dry warehousing for raw and finished goods, grain silos, packaging facilities, material handling infrastructure, aseptic pulping facilities, and a steam generation unit.

It houses food testing labs and a research and development centre for forthcoming entrepreneurs to build processing units for agricultural and horticultural products, procured from the farmers.

The CPC provides common multi-grain milling facilities, as well as a pack house with a sorting and grading facility.

Infrastructure at Tumkur India Food Park

Supporting infrastructural facilities for the food park project include roads, drainage, water supply, captive power plant, rain water harvesting, effluent treatment, telecommunication lines, parking bay, including traffic management system, and weighbridges. Additional facilities comprise office and administration buildings and living and recreational buildings.

Collection centres have been set up at Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Doddaballapur, Chamarajanagar, Chikmagalur and Shimoga to help farmers sell their produce to the park directly.

Contractors involved

Engineering solutions company Rinac provided the food park with facilities, including cold storage ripening chambers, packing and grading facilities, ready-to-eat processing facility, chill and frozen warehouse, and mango pulp storage facility.

The company also supplied Ammonia refrigeration systems and chill water process for individual quick freezers (IQF) air-conditioning of process area, and Freon-based rack-refrigeration systems for banana ripening.

Rinac undertook the pre-engineered building (PEB) construction, civil construction and electrical works for the project.