VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, June 29: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren is set to inaugurate a milk processing plant in Sahibganj district on Wednesday. Constructed and developed worth Rs 34 Crore, it has 50,000 liter per day production capacity. In the next phase, the production capacity will be increased to one lakh liter per day. However, the production work on the trial basis had started last year but it was waiting for a formal inauguration.
Currently on the day basis, the plant is collecting 10,000 liter raw milk per day from farmers. It can produce 41,000 lakh liters of milk per day besides lassi and butter 5,000 kg, curd 2,500 kg and 500 kg of paneer.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of the plant in April 2017. Situated at Mahadeoganj locality, it can serve the purpose of farmers training center also where farmers can be taught the techniques of milk production.
This is the sixth milk processing unit in Jharkhand managed by Jharkhand Milk Federation (JMF) that sells milk products under the Medha brand. Currently, JMF produces 1.5 lakh per liters milk per day and it has planned to increase the production by another 3.5 lakh liters per day in the next four years.
JMF currently runs milk processing units namely at Hotwar in Ranchi (one lakh per day), Sarath in Godda (50,000 per liter per day), Latehar (20,000 liter per day) besides Deoghar and Koderma which has production capacity of 25,000 liters per day each.