Date:03/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/03/stories/2007060302080500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Six sugar units to start production this year

Staff Reporter

Sugar factory managements attracted to the Krishna belt

Bangalore: Rural Water Supply and Sugar Minister S.A. Ravindranath on Saturday said the Government had sanctioned 13 modern sugar factories in the private sector in north Karnataka region and at least six of them would start production next year.

The Minister told presspersons that the applications had been received to start six more factories in the same region, including two in Bagalkot district. All the factories had agreed to take up co-generation. Each would have to crush a minimum of 3,500 tonnes of sugarcane a day and generate 14 MW of power.

The Minister said five factories would be in Belgaum district, followed by three in Gulbarga, two each in Bidar and Bijapur districts. One had been sanctioned to be set up in Haliyal of Uttara Kannada district. Good irrigation facility after the Alamatti Dam was completed in the Krishna belt had encouraged entrepreneurs to start more sugar factories, he added.

He said that a record production of sugar had been achieved this year. As against 178 lakh tonnes last year, the production would be 230 lakh tonnes this year including the crop in southern region at the end of the crushing period.

CoD inquiry

Mr. Ravindranath alleged that three cooperative sugar factories in Bidar district, including those headed by the former ministers Bheemanna Khandre and Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli, had purchased nearly three lakh tonnes of sugarcane from outside the State for crushing. An inquiry by CoD would be ordered into this.