Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure Scheme

What is the Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure Scheme?

The Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure Scheme is a component scheme of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY), run by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries. According to the MoFPI scheme page, its stated objective is to provide integrated cold chain and preservation infrastructure facilities, without any break, from the farm gate to the consumer.

The scheme has been running since 2008 and was restructured into PMKSY in 2016-17. PMKSY carries a total budgetary outlay of Rs 6,520 crore for the 15th Finance Commission cycle, after the Union Cabinet approved an additional Rs 1,920 crore in July 2025. That approval included Rs 1,000 crore to set up 50 multi-product food irradiation units under this cold chain component.

The cold chain scheme is a grant-in-aid scheme for infrastructure projects, not a cash transfer to individuals. A promoter builds a cold chain project with their own equity and a bank term loan, and the Ministry reimburses part of the eligible project cost as subsidy after the project is verified.

Which produce the scheme covers

The scheme supports the entire supply chain for non-horticulture produce; dairy, meat, poultry, and fish or marine produce except shrimp. This is the single most misunderstood point about the scheme. On 8 June 2022 MoFPI stopped supporting fruits and vegetables under the cold chain scheme and moved that sector, along with shrimp, to the Operation Greens component of PMKSY. A mango or potato cold store therefore has to apply under Operation Greens, not here, while a milk chilling chain, a poultry processing line or a fish freezing unit belongs under this scheme.

Components the scheme funds

• Farm level infrastructure (FLI), pre-cooling, weighing, sorting, grading, packing and collection facilities near the production point.
• Processing centre. This is a mandatory component, covering multi- temperature cold stores, controlled atmosphere stores, IQF and blast freezing, and value addition lines.
• Distribution hub, multi-product, multi-temperature storage closer to the consuming market.
• Refrigerated transport, reefer vans, refrigerated trucks, insulated vans and mobile insulated tankers.
• Irradiation facility: added through operational guidelines dated 6 August 2024, and the only component that can be applied for as a standalone project.

Under the 22 May 2025 operational guidelines, an applicant must set up farm level infrastructure and connect it to either a distribution hub or refrigerated and insulated transport, or both.

Who is eligible for the cold chain scheme?

You can apply if you are:

• An individual, including a farmer, setting up a commercial cold chain project.
• A partnership firm, proprietorship firm, LLP, company or corporation registered in India.
• A Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO), Farmer Producer Company (FPC), cooperative, State Agriculture or Marketing Federation, or Self Help Group.
• An NGO, central or state PSU, or joint venture.

You cannot apply, or will not get the grant — if:

• Your project is for fruits, vegetables or shrimp. These are not eligible under the cold chain scheme since 8 June 2022 and must go to Operation Greens.
• You are looking for a personal cash benefit or a subsidy on a domestic refrigerator or a small farm-level cold room alone. The scheme funds integrated projects with a mandatory processing centre.
• You cannot arrange the minimum term loan and equity. General applicants need 20% equity and a bank term loan of at least 20% of project cost. Applicants from the North-Eastern Region and SC/ST beneficiaries need 10% each.
• Your proposal scores below the cut-off at appraisal. A proposal must obtain at least 60 marks on the evaluation criteria, relaxed to 45 marks for NER and SC/ST proposals.
• You apply outside an open Expression of Interest window, or submit on paper.

Consent from the state government for storage of food commodities is not mandatory, but state support is needed in practice for land, power and clearances for the processing unit.

How much money does the cold chain scheme give?

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries pays grant-in-aid in the form of subsidy:

Difficult areas are the North-Eastern states including Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Integrated Tribal Development Programme (ITDP) areas and the islands.

Projects in the NER and from SC/ST beneficiaries also get three structural relaxations under PMKSY: equity contribution of 10% instead of 20%, a minimum term loan of 10% instead of 20%, and an approval threshold of 45 marks instead of 60.

Grant is released in instalments against verified physical and financial progress, not as a lump sum before construction. The subsidy is calculated on eligible project cost, which excludes land cost, pre-operative expenses, margin money for working capital and non-technical civil work.

How to apply for the cold chain scheme

1. Check the EoI page on mofpi.gov.in. Applications are accepted only when the Ministry floats an Expression of Interest, which is normally valid for about 45 days. There is no permanent open window.
2. Read the operational guidelines dated 22 May 2025 for the general cold chain scheme, or the guidelines dated 6 August 2024 if you are proposing a multi-product food irradiation unit.
3. Prepare a Detailed Project Report. It must cover raw material availability in the catchment area, marketing strategy, estimated production capacity and processing duration, financial parameters including profit and loss projections, and direct, contractual and indirect employment generation.
4. Tie up your finance. Obtain a bank term loan sanction letter for at least 20% of project cost (10% for NER and SC/ST applicants) and a CA certificate on means of finance showing your equity share.
5. Register on the SAMPADA portal at sampada-mofpi.gov.in and complete the online application form for the cold chain scheme.
6. Upload every supporting document; constitution documents, land papers, loan sanction, audited accounts, machinery quotations, and SC/ST or FPO/SHG proof if you are claiming the 50% rate.
7. Pay the application fee as specified in the EoI and submit before the window closes. No physical application is accepted.
8. Track your proposal through your SAMPADA login. Proposals found prima facie eligible go to technical appraisal and then to the Ministry's approval committee.

How is a cold chain proposal evaluated?

Proposals that clear the prima facie eligibility check are scored on technical parameters and assessment criteria. A proposal must reach 60 marks to be considered for grant-in-aid, or 45 marks if it comes from the North-Eastern Region or an SC/ST beneficiary. Merit-based approvals are then issued to eligible proposals depending on the funds available in that EoI round, which means a proposal can clear the marks threshold and still not get sanctioned if the round is oversubscribed.

Why cold chain proposals get rejected

• Wrong sector. Proposing a fruits and vegetables or shrimp cold chain, which has been out of this scheme since June 2022.
• No processing centre. The processing centre is a mandatory component; a proposal for cold storage alone does not qualify under the general scheme.
• No bank term loan sanction at the time of application, or a sanction letter that does not cover the minimum 20% (or 10%) of project cost.
• Weak catchment justification, a DPR that cannot show enough dairy, meat, poultry or fish raw material within a workable radius of the plant.
• Inflated machinery costs not backed by quotations, which get trimmed at appraisal and reduce the eligible cost on which grant is calculated.
• Applying after the EoI window closes. Late submissions are not considered.
• Score below the threshold on the evaluation criteria.

What has the cold chain scheme achieved?

According to a Press Information Bureau backgrounder on the scheme, 395 integrated cold chain projects had been approved since 2008 as of June 2025, of which 291 were completed and operational. Those projects created 25.52 lakh metric tonnes of preservation capacity and 114.66 lakh metric tonnes of processing capacity a year, and generated about 1,74,600 jobs.

Since 2016-17 alone, Rs 1,535.63 crore has been released against approved grants of Rs 2,066.33 crore for 269 approved projects, of which 169 have been completed and operationalised.

How to check your cold chain application status

1. Log in to sampada-mofpi.gov.in with the credentials you registered with.
2. Open the application dashboard for the cold chain scheme and check the stage shown against your application ID.
3. Respond promptly to any query raised by the appraisal team; unanswered queries are the usual reason a file stalls.
4. For a status that has not moved for a long period, write to the cold chain division of MoFPI quoting your application ID.

Where to get help and raise a grievance

• Cold chain division, MoFPI; Shri Vivek Kumar Singh, Deputy Secretary, telephone 011-26406521.
• Scheme guidelines and EoIs; mofpi.gov.in, under Schemes and EoI.
• Portal issues, raise a ticket through the helpdesk link on sampada-mofpi.gov.in.
• Grievances, the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System at pgportal.gov.in, selecting the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

Applying on SAMPADA is done directly by the applicant. No consultant is required by the guidelines, and no MoFPI officer will ask for a payment to move a file.