Patanjali Ayurved to invest Rs 1,300 crore in Assam

Balipara: Patanjali Ayurved, the FMCG venture promoted by Yoga guru Ramdev, will hire around 5000 people at its upcoming Rs 1,300-crore facility in Assam by the end of this fiscal year.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today laid the foundation stone of the Patanjali Herbal and Mega Food Park at Balipara in Sonitpur district.

"The unit will give direct employment to 5000 people and benefit one lakh farmers. The complete profit from the Food Park will be dedicated for the welfare of Assam by setting up school and skill development centres in each district," Ramdev said at a function.

He said the facility would incur an investment of around Rs 1,300 crore and would be ready by February 2017.

"This Balipara unit of Patanjali will produce Rs 20,000 crore annual production with an annual production capacity of around 12 lakh MT. We target to speed up our construction so as to open the Park formally on February 15, 2017.

"The unit will manufacture wide range of consumer products such as cosmetics, nutritional foods and kitchen essentials among others," Ramdev said.

"I request the local farmers to plant herbal and medicinal plants so that that they can supply their local produce to the unit and reap benefits. The plant will produce rice bran oil from the remains of rice husks," he said.

The Yoga practitioner-cum-entrepreneur said he would soon contemplate of creating a viable market for green tea to facilitate the small tea growers of Assam.

Stating the moment as historic, Sonowal claimed Patanjali Food Park would be the biggest project ever to be set up in Assam.

Present on the occasion, Bodoland Territorial Council Chief Hagrama Mohillary declared that he would allot 1,000 acres of land to Patanjali Ayurveda in Bodoland for setting up of a similar unit and a 'gaushala'.