Rourkela: Two senior officials of ‘Bloomberg Philanthropy’, Brook Smith and Aparna Ramanan recently took a tour of Rourkela city. They visited the cold storage facilities set up by the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) in different parts of the city and also interacted with the beneficiaries. They also discussed various issues with RMC commissioner and members of the local SHGs.
The visit of the two officials assumes significance as Rourkela city had been named among the top 15 cities of the world, in the ‘Bloomberg Mayors Challenger’ survey in 2021 for its unique cold storage facilities. When the entire nation suffered the pangs of Covid-19, these cold storage facilities had come to the aid of small businessmen, farmers and also the women associated with the ‘Mission Shakti’ programme. For this unique project ‘Bloomberg Philanthropy’ had awarded the municipal corporation cash award of $1 million.
Initially the first of the cold storages was set up as a pilot project during the peak period of Covid-19 at VSS market in Chhend locality. It was for fruit and vegetable vendors who needed a place to preserve their products. Seeing the success of the project, the RMC decided to set up such cold storage facilities at other places.
The ‘Bloomberg Philanthropy’ officials expressed satisfaction over how the cold storages have benefitted a large number of people. Among the other facilities they inspected were the ones at Traffic Gate, Panposh and Ambagaon market.
The two officials interacted with members of the different SHG groups and learned how they were managing those installations and how the facilities have helped in making their lives better. They also interacted with the farmers and small-time fruit vendors. All the meetings were extensive and proved productive to the beneficiaries, officials said.
PNN