HPCL takes over two closed sugar mills at Sugauli, Lauriya

The Times of India Reports :-

 

PATNA: In a major development which is likely to trigger a boon for the sugar industry in Bihar, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) took over two closed sugar mills at Sugauli and Lauriya in East and West Champaran and inked a tripartite MoU with the Bihar State Sugar Corporation Ltd and Bihar government on Sunday for their revival on largescale. HPCL CMD Arun Balakrishnan called it a path breaking decision and added HPCL is diversifying in other trade by not only going for the production of sugar, but of ethanol too. The HPCL will invest Rs 600 crore for the revival of these two sugar mills as well as a distillery unit in Lauriya. "This is the beginning of a larger investment programme. We will invest Rs 1,000 crore in Bihar in the next three years," said Balakrishnan and added that the two mills will be made operational in 18 months and a maximum of 24 months time. He also announced to open a very large oil terminal at a cost of Rs 250 crore at Bihta in Patna district which coming into operation will solve oil shortage problem once for ever. Chief minister Nitish Kumar, who spoke later, said 50 acre of land will be transferred to HPCL in Bihta near the railway line. He said HPCL should declare a date for laying its foundation soon. Nitish said with HPCL entering the sugar sector, it has opened a closed gate for production of ethanol which had been banned by the Centre. He said the State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) had been flooded with proposals worth Rs 20,000 crore for ethanol production. However, he said Bihar became very backward in cane production and now the production was only two per cent of the sugar produced in the country. Nitish urged the petroleum ministry to seriously consider the opening of petro-chemical complex at Barauni and even promised to allot 1,100 acres of land for the project. Union petroleum secretary R S Pandey said Bihar is growing and one of the development index was consumption of petroleum which he said has risen to 12 to 13 per cent. He said an oil exploration work at Samastipur was going on. JD(U) MP N K Singh said Bihar has made its investment environment attractive. He said the state government has made a target of private investment of Rs 150,000 crore in its 11th five year plan document. The corporation had fixed a floor price of Rs 29.64 crore and Rs 45.40 crore for the two mills against which HPCL made a bid of Rs 45 crore and Rs 50 crore which were found the highest. The HPCL gave two cheques of Rs 20 crore for Sugauli and Rs 18 crore for Lauriya mills.