Amul marketer Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited (GCMMF) will soon start work on a new 20 lakh litres per day (LLPD) milk processing plant near Rajkot, creating additional processing capacity in the region.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to virtually perform the ground-breaking for the ₹500-crore plant next week.
Supply issues
The plant, considered as a common mega dairy for the Saurashtra region, will be set up at Gadhka village in Rajkot district.
The Saurashtra region, comprising 11 districts, collectively produces about 35 lakh litres of milk per day. But only about 10-12 lakh litres gets processed at the existing co-operative dairy facilities available with Rajkot district union, Amreli district union, Surendranagar district union among others.
A major share of the milk, according to dairy leaders, has to be transported to Amul Fed dairy in Gandhinagar for processing on daily basis.
“The annual transportation cost is around ₹100 crore. So, once this facility is ready in Saurashtra, it will directly benefit farmers of the region,” said RS Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF.
Faster delivery
Shamalbhai Patel, Chairman, GCMMF, told businessline, “With this new plant, the dairies would be able to process and deliver the milk faster in the market.”
The plant, according to Sodhi, will also produce value-added milk products such as butter oil (Ghee), butter, skimmed milk powder (SMP), besides the liquid milk packaging and ultra-high treated milk.
