Built in an area of 4 acres on the Patiala-Sangrur road, this facility in North India will have a storage capacity of 6,800 tonnes of potatoes and will be exclusively dedicated to Frito-Lay of Pepsi.

The development is significant for the obsolete cooling technology is being moved out from the chain of cold stores in Punjab.

It is being replaced with the most modern temperature maintaining technology available in the world to enhance the value of the products stored and fetch better returns.

The hi-tech facility would be a boon for potato growers and would give a filip to potato production in the state.

A private entrepreneur, Mr Sukhinder Singh of International Fresh Farm Products India Ltd, who has set up the facility here, said the stocks would cater to the growing potato requirements of Frito Lays, which has its plant in the vicinity. ''Their present demand is 130 tonnes per day and proper storage facilities would help us stock their quota of three months and supply them quality potatoes of proper size and firmness all through the year,'' he said.

He explained that equipped with the technology to monitor carbon dioxide levels and the latest CIPC technology for fumigation, they would be able to enhance the shelf life of the potatoes by retaining its quality and edibility.

The company, he said, is rigid on its requirement for quality standards and takes potatoes only from those who take seeds from them and follow the specific growing patterns.

The quality controls available on line will not only provide the required information about storage to the technocrat at Channo but also to

those in the head office at Delhi, and if need be, the officials in the USA, said Mr Singh.

The Managing Director of Punjab Agro Industries Corporation , Mr Himmat Singh, which has provided assistance to this ambitious project, said setting up of this facility would give a boost to potato production in the state and the area under its cultivation would increase by at least 1,000 acres. The income of the farmers would also double-up as compared to the returns they get in the traditional wheat/paddy cultivation, he added.

Besides this, the process of integrated gradation and storage would provide jobs to a few hundred people of the area on a sustainable basis.

Mr Sukhwinder Singh said the trials had been successfully completed and two of the four chambers would be commissioned by month-end.