Mobile Van “FISH ON WHEELS’ to be launched on Sep 7 in Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar, Sep 4: Fishery is an important sector of food production, providing food security to a large part of the population besides earning foreign exchange and remarkable contribution to agricultural economy. In spite of that our fishermen are the weakest among the weaker section.
Fisheries Department, Govt of Odisha, National Federation of Fishers Cooperatives. Ltd. (FISHCOPFED) and National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) play an important role to uplift the socio economic condition of the fishermen through diverse endeavours. With the support of the Fisheries Department, Govt of Odisha FISHCOPFED has remarkably enhanced its activities in Odisha than other State in the Country. In this context, tocater the fish loving consumers of Bhubaneswar FISHCOPFED is going to launch a Mobile Van “FISH ON WHEELS” with the support of NFDB on 7th September, 2015 in front of Chilika Fresh Outlet, IRC Village, Bhubaneswar.
Minister, Agriculture, Fisheries & ARD Sri Pradeep Maharathy will inaugurate this Mobile Van at 8.30 AM on 7th September, 2015. Fresh preparation of fish dishes in healthy and hygienic condition will be sold to the consumers of Bhubaneswar at reasonable price.
Fish on Wheels is a novel initiative and a concept of innovation floated by the Commissioner cum Secretary (Fisheries & ARD), Govt. of Odisha, Sri Bishnupada Sethi. FISHCOPFED, a national level fishery cooperative federation, accepted this idea and the Board of the federation accepted this chance to launch the first pilot project in the state of Odisha. The project is jointly funded by the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) and the National Federation of Fishers Cooperatives Ltd. (FISHCOPFED), -the two organs of the Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India.
The ‘Fish on Wheels’ concept with modern concept of technology, hygiene, value addition, advertisement etc. is new in India. Only few states have just initiated such projects. The Odisha project is quite unique with cold storage facilities and cooking facilities inside the vehicle in a closed environment. The outside design is the brain child of the Commissioner himself who did it meticulously with the designers with a strong will of FISHCOPFED to make it a model project. It is a compact vehicle beautifully designed with innovative ideas of Engineers from Meerut (UP). Fish items of different flavours shall be served in cooked condition with different local fish varieties including Chilika fish. The vehicle is run by CNG only and thus shall be kept initially in one place and move to places after assessing the demand.
On success of the project, the same can be replicated in other districts of Odisha. The FISHCOPFED brand shall be propagated. Stress shall be given on brand building and consolidation of customers’ base by targeting not only the working class but also the fish lovers with good taste. The potential fishery cooperatives shall be attracted with the support of the state govt. for their economic empowerment through FISHCOPFED. The interest shown by the Fisheries Department, Govt of Odisha is highly laudable.