BALURGHAT: An abandoned cold storage which was built up during the Left regime will be revamped for further use by the Balurghat civic body shortly, Ashok Mitra, the concerned civic body chairman informed.
The cold storage was established inside a truck terminus located in Balurghat’s Mangalpur area by the then Left Front-run Balurghat civic body a few decades ago.
Mitra expressed regret that the cold storage was abandoned by the erstwhile Left board immediately after its inauguration. It was in functional condition during the Left period, former civic chief Sucheta Biswas clarified.
It was in 2002 when the Left Front was in the power of Balurghat civic body and that year at the end of May, the cold storage was constructed along the Balurghat-Hili National Highway at a cost of several lakhs of rupees. The purpose of constructing it was to help farmers store agricultural products there. Since the inauguration, there was no response from farmers, wholesalers or stockists in terms of stocking agricultural products there. As a result, the building practically fell into disrepair due to neglect.
The cold storage was built under a scheme of the then Left-ruled state government. In the first stage, one businessman of Baul village took it as a lease. He ran the cold storage for five to six months. Later he lost interest in keeping it under supervision and subsequently it was handed over to a businessman from Hili under a new initiative but he also left.
Since then, it has remained practically unused for 20 consecutive years. However, it is known that raw materials were kept there by the Public Works Department (PWD) at times.
Presently, it is no longer in a condition to store agricultural produce. Balurghat Municipality has taken up the project of launching some other projects there.
“We have a specific plan so that the cold storage will be functional again. We will discuss in our next board meeting regarding the matter,” Mitra told Millennium Post.