Food minister lays foundation for modern silo in Ctg

Constructing modern silos to store grains can effectively help tackle the food shortage crisis and natural disasters through the long-term preservation of grains, experts have said.

To serve precisely that objective, the foundation of a modern steel silo to store wheat was laid at the Concrete Wheat Silo Campus, located on the banks of the river Karnaphuli in Chattogram, according to them.

They were speaking at an event attened by Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder, Food Secretary Md Ismiel Hossain,

Confidence Group Managing Director Salman Karim, Director-General of The Directorate General of Food Shakhawat Hossain, Member of the Board of Directors of Confidence Group Rupam Kishore Barua and Project Director of the Modern Food Storage Facilities Project Md Rezaul Karim Sheikh, among others.

The silo will be constructed jointly by Bangladesh-based Confidence Infrastructure Limited and USA-based GSI Group LLC. As a part of the Modern Food Storage Facilities Project co-funded by the Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank, the construction of the silo will be supervised by the Directorate General of Food.

This silo will be capable of preserving grains for two to three years in an automatic temperature- and humidity-controlled environment. Moreover, wheat preserved in the silo will not require chemical or pesticide interventions to ensure quality control, which is not possible in traditionally used silos. Due to a lack of scope to control the humidity and temperature in silos currently in use at the local distribution centers, storing grains regardless of the season or for long periods of time is not possible. In such a circumstance, this silo will play an effective role in the long-term preservation of wheat.

Under the Modern Food Storage Facilities Project, eight modern silos, including this one in Chattogram, will be constructed in eight geographically important regions in Bangladesh.

Two of the silos will be used to store wheat, while six will be used to store rice.

Out of the eight regions, Bangladesh-based Confidence Infrastructure Limited and USA-based GSI Group LLC will jointly build silos in three regions – a 48,000 metric tonne capacity rice silo in Barishal, a 48,000 metric tonne capacity rice silo in Narayanganj, and the 114,300 metric tonne capacity wheat silo in Chattogram. The core objective of the project is to build up an effective food storage system at the government and family levels for post-disaster emergency situations.

Currently, construction of the steel silo which is capable of preserving 114,300 metric tonnes of grain, is about to commence under Package W-24.

Confidence Infrastructure Limited and GSI Group LLC signed an agreement with the Directorate General of Food in April of this year to construct the wheat storage silo in Chattogram. According to the agreement, the construction of the silo will be completed by March of 2024.