February 4, 2019
State Govt to build supermarket for organic vegetables in New Town
The State Agricultural Marketing Department is constructing a seven-storeyed supermarket for selling organic vegetables named ‘Joibo Haat’ (‘joibo’ means ‘organic’ in Bengali) in New Town.
It will provide space to farmers to sell vegetables. A food court and a laboratory will also be housed there.
The West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) has provided the department 14.77 cottah of land for the supermarket. The construction will cost around Rs 11.40 crore.
The ground, first and second floors will house the organic market. The third floor will house an organic food court. The fifth floor will house the advanced laboratory and an office. On the sixth floor, a guest house will be set up.
The advanced laboratory will conduct research on organic farming. Importantly too, it will work in identifying whether a vegetable is organic or not, the first laboratory in the State to conduct such testing. Currently, to do this, samples are sent to other States, which is a costly affair. The laboratory will also work in motivating farmers to use organic fertilisers instead of the chemical ones.
The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) is already doing rooftop farming in one of the market buildings using organic fertilisers. The New Town municipally authority is also encouraging residents to start rooftop farming.
Source: Millennium Post
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