Industries minister Shahnawaz Hussain said the Centre has increased the state’s quota of the ethanol production units from six to 17 with the production capacity of 36 crore litres. They have also been given project clearances. The envisaged investment is worth Rs. 34 billion.
The districts chosen for the 17 units are Muzaffarpur, Bhojpur, Nalanda, Purnia, Buxar, Begusarai, Madhubani, Gopalganj, East Champaran and Bhagalpur. Their establishment and opening have also become certain, since they have been linked with oil marketing companies (OMCs) for using the ethanol produced by them for blending with petrol, Hussain said.
These districts are known for production of sugar cane, rice and maize, besides having abundant water and cheap labour. At the moment, 10 of the 38 districts have been selected to have the ethanol production units, but other districts would also be covered, as the total project worth Rs 300 billion submitted by 151 companies is in the pipeline, he added.
Hussain was addressing a function organized by Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA) to felicitate the representatives of 17 companies who had secured licence to open their production units. Additional chief secretary of industries department, Brijesh Mehrotra and other senior officials of the department were also present on the occasion.
“In fact, the industrialization of the state is on the runway for take-off due to licence/clearance given to the 17 investor companies to establish their ethanol production units,” Hussain said.
Mehrotra said a high-level meeting involving the representatives of these companies and those from the Union food and petroleum ministries, as well as representatives of financial institutions and chief general managers of various banks, is to be held through videoconferencing on November 8 to clear their queries and concerns.
Speaking at the function, four representatives of the companies concerned said they were somewhat wary of investing in Bihar in the beginning, but the ease of doing business in the state was better than even Telangana, which is considered the best in this regard.
