Reviving sugar industry: Govt to invite investors

PATNA: In its bid to revive the sugar industry in Bihar, the state government is going for a third bid inviting prospective investors to invest in the 11 closed sugar mills of Bihar State Sugar Corporation (BSSC).

The SBI Capital has already evaluated the assets of these mills whose outdated machineries will have to be replaced by new and modern machineries by the prospective investors, said sugarcane commissioner Jai Mangal Singh. The land of the 11 sugar mills has been proposed to be given on term lease for 60 years which can be further extended to 30 more years, he said.

The bidder/investors would be given freedom to bid for establishing sugar mill or any other industry of their choice on premises of these closed sugar mills. The 560-acre excess farm land of Bihta sugar mill in Buxar district and 1,000 acres of farm land of Motipur sugar mill, Muzaffarpur, have also been included in the bidding process for establishing sugar mills or any other industries, he said.

In the first open bid invited by the department of sugarcane for the 15 closed sugar mills of the BSSC, the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPC) had been given the sugar mills at Lauria in West Champaran district and Sugauli in East Champaran district for sugar production, distillery and power generation.

Each of the HPC sugar mills at Sugauli and Lauria will have the capacity of 3,500 tonne crushing per day (TCD), 60 kilo litre per day ethanol production, and 18 MW power co-generation. The production will start from the month of December, 2010.

In the second open bid, the sugarcane department had given closed Raiyyam Sugar mill in Darbhanga district to a new investor, who will establish sugar mill with capacity of 2,500 TCD for sugar production which can be extended up to 5,000 TCD, and 15 MW power co-generation.

At Sidhaulia sugar mill in Gopalganj, the investor will install sugar mill plant with 2,500 TCD capacity which can be extended up to to 5,000 TCD capacity. This will also have 15 MW power co-generation capacity.

source: TOI