NEW DELHI: Amid mounting pressure to save farm produce from getting wasted due to absence of storage infrastructure , the government on Monday sanctioned proposals for setting up 30 new cold chains in the country with a total investment of over Rs 744 crore.

The ministry of food processing industries will provide Rs 274.9 crore as grant-in-aid for these projects while remaining Rs 470 crore would be generated as additional investment.

“These projects will help in a big way in reducing the wastage of food,” said the food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said while highlighting how the 16% of the farm produce gets lost in absence of storage facilities.

A government report estimated that food products worth over Rs 44,000 crore gets lost every year in the country due to inadequate storage infrastructure.

A total of 138 integrated cold chain projects were approved by the government, out of which 108 had been sanctioned earlier. Remaining 30 were sanctioned on Monday.

“Fifty-six cold chain projects have come up, while 52 remaining are in different stages of completion,” Badal said.

Once all these 138 cold chain projects become operational, it will add 4.76 lakh tonnes of storage capacity and 118 lakh litres per day of milk processing capacity.