Crushing capacity triples at region’s oldest sugar mill

Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, November 23

Punjab Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Monday inaugurated the renovated, modernised and expanded Bhogpur Sugar Mill with enhanced capacity of 3,000 tonnes of cane per day (TCD) from 1,016 TCD besides 15MW power generation plant on its premises. The crushing season was also started by Randhawa in the mills on Monday.

10 sugarcane farmers honoured

The first 10 sugarcane farmers who arrived with the crop in the mill including Bikramjeet Singh, Sewa Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Kashmir Kaur, Harpreet Kaur, Iqbal Singh, Sarbjeet Singh, Gurbachan Singh, Jaswant Singh, and Joginder Singh were also honoured by the minister.

Sugarfed and Cooperative departments have completed the revamping of the oldest sugar mill of this region, which has led to the strengthening of the crushing capacity of this mill. Further, the new power generation plant will help in collecting additional revenue worth Rs42.50 crore, which would ensure timely payment to farmers from their resources.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said to drive out a farmer out of the traditional crop cycle of wheat and paddy, sugarcane farming holds a lot of potential, which can further encourage crop diversification in the state. Randhawa said as of now, about 1 lakh hectares of agricultural land was under sugarcane farming, adding that this area would further increase in the coming years especially after the revival of sugar mills. He said to make sugarcane farming a profitable affair and encourage farmers, the strengthening of sugar mills was crucial.

Randhawa said the state government had shifted the plant machinery worth Rs20.27 crore of closed sugar mill of Faridkot to Bhogpur sugar mill, which had enhanced its capacity from earlier 1,016 TCD to 3,000 TCD.

The 15 MW power-generation plant has also been established here, of which 8.54 MW power would be sold to the PSPCL at Rs6.29 per unit with an enhancement worth 18 paisa per annum. He said the department had signed an agreement with the authorities concerned in this regard.

Further, with the inception of this sugar mill, an additional revenue worth Rs11 crore in 2020-21, Rs15 crore in 2021-22, and Rs16.50 crore in 2022-23 would be collected.

Present on the occasion were former Minister and Punjab Technical Education Board Chairman Mohinder Singh Kaypee, Tanda Urmar MLA Sangat Singh Gilzian, Kartarpur MLA Surinder Singh Chaudhary, former MLA and former Chairman Kanwaljeet Singh Lally.