Karnal sugar mill trial likely from March 30

QUOTE

Long-pending demand fulfilled

It was a long-pending demand of the farmers and the government has fulfilled it by not only renovating but also modernising the mill. — Nishant Kumar Yadav, Deputy Commissioner

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, March 18

The long wait of farmers is going to an end, as the new Karnal Cooperative Sugar Mill is likely to have a trial of crushing sugarcane from March 30. The installation work of the machinery is in the final stage. As per officials, the extended deadline is March 31. The crushing season starts on March 30, so the trial date has also been fixed as March 30.

After the mill becomes operational, its capacity would increase to 3,500 tonnes crushed per day (TCD) from the existing 2,200 TCD. It would be further expanded to 5,000 TCD. With the increase in the capacity, around 8 to 10 lakh tonnes of surplus sugarcane of the allocated area, which was earlier allotted to other sugar mills due to the less capacity of the mill, would now be crushed here, said Aditi, MD, Karnal Cooperative Sugar Mill.

She said there would be no need to allocate the surplus sugarcane to other mills as the mill would be able to crush the whole production of the allocated areas in the coming days.

“The new mill will also generate 18 MW power that will help in increasing its income. Out of it, 13 MW electricity will be sold to the HVPNL and the remaining will be used to run the plant,” she said.

Besides, once the mill becomes operational, it would start producing refined sugar. “At present, we are producing around 3.5 lakh quintals of conventional sugar per day, but after the mill starts working, we will be able to produce 4 lakh quintals of refined sugar, which will fetch good prices,” the MD said.

“If the new mill is not started now, we will have to start it in the next crushing season, which will entail expenses of around Rs 5 crore on the maintenance of the old mill,” Aditi said.

The old mill is working since 1977 and develops technical snag in the crushing season every year, which affects the crushing season and resentment brews among the farmers. On the demands of the farmers, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had laid the foundation stone of the new Karnal Cooperative Sugar Mill instead of the existing old mill on January 20, 2018. The work was allotted on November 18, 2019 and the deadline was fixed as October 25, 2020, but due to the Covid lockdown, the project failed to meet the deadline and the government then extended the deadline to March 31.

Nishant Kumar Yadav, Deputy Commissioner, said a sum of Rs 263 crore had been spent on the renovation and modernisation of the old mill. “It was a long-pending demand of the farmers and the government has fulfilled it by not only renovating but also modernising the mill,” he said, adding that the new mill will also reduce the sugar loss to 1.8 per cent from the existing 2.5 per cent per quintal. Besides, it will also increase the sugar recovery to 11 per cent from the existing 10.87 per cent, he maintained.