Sweet news for Bihar, more sugar units on way

In what is certain to be sweet music to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s ears, three sugar majors have made proposals to set up sugar units in investment-starved Bihar. This follows the clearance of two sugar complexes to be set up by south Indian company Rajshree Sugars, which is now interested in setting up a third unit in the state.
Besides Rajshree Sugars, Dhampur Sugar and India Glycol have a submitted Detailed Project Reports (DPR) before the single-window State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) to set up greenfield sugar complexes. With this, the number of proposals for setting up sugar mills has gone up to five, said Sugar Cane Development Minister Nitish Mishra.

The biggest proposal is that of India Glycol, a major chemical company in the country. It has given a Rs 550-crore proposal for a 10,000 TCD (tonnes crushed per day) sugar complex in Ekma block of Saran district. This so far is the largest proposal received by the state. The second largest is by Dhampur Sugar, the north Indian sugar major. It has submitted a proposal for a 5,000 TCD sugar plant worth Rs 200 crore in Udakishanganj area of backward Madhepura district. It will be a greenfield project along with a bio-composed plant.

The third DPR has come from Rajshree Sugars, which desires to set up a third greenfield sugar complex in Paroo block of Muzaffarpur district worth Rs 142 crore and with a crushing capacity of 5,000 TCD. The state Cabinet has already cleared the two earlier proposals by the company for setting up sugar mills in East Champaran and Madhubani districts.

Mishra said that apart from these several other companies have shown keen interest in making a foray into Bihar after the change of regime and the attractive sugar policy offered by the Nitish government.