HARIPUR: The fruit and vegetable cold storage project is incomplete even 14 years after the start of work here.

Under the plans, a modern facility was to put up at the cost of Rs90 for collecting, grading, packing and storing the locally grown fruit and vegetables before their departure to other cities.

Work on it began in 2008 after the acquisition of four acres of land by the Pakistan Horticulture Board opposite the University of Haripur campus.

The land for collection point had plots in three categories, while two auction sheds and a cold storage was also part of the premises.

The PHB built one auction point and 50 shops but got lukewarm response from the local investors to repeated auction notices.

Official records show that the PHB had fixed Rs400,000 for a shop.

Investor Atiq Ahmad claimed that the price of a shop to be leased out was almost 50 per cent more than the market’s.

He said most shops were either not auctioned or unused.

Former president of the Farm Services Centre, Haripur, Asif Ali Jah complained about faulty construction of shops and overhead water tank and said the agriculture secretary had ordered an inquiry into it, but its findings never came out.

Trader Jehangir Khan said the cold storage construction plan was flawed.

“The PHB should have constructed cold storage before auctioning shops and other plots,” he said.

He said the poor planning by the PHB was to blame for the ‘failure of the much-needed project in which millions of rupees were invested by the government’.

The PHB had installed a fruit and vegetables grading machine after the project’s launch and it has never been functional. Currently, it is rusting away in the open with several parts stolen by the residents.

Aksar Khan, who does business in the local fruit and vegetable market, said the project promised massive financial benefits to the local growers.

He said the cold storage facility was imperative for the storage and grading of fruits and vegetables.

When contacted, director (agriculture) in the district said fruit and vegetable sellers were asked many times to develop plots and purchase shops but they didn’t do so for the ‘reasons best known to them’.

He said the PHB was for cold storage construction with the help of funds generated by shop auctions.

The district is famous for loquat, Khanpuri orange, guava and lychee, while the vegetables grown there include cauliflower, cabbage, onion, green pea, tomato, potato, chilli, turnip and radish.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2022