Kalia Chapra Sugar Mill to reopen in March

Set up in 1969, the state owned mill was laid off in 1994 with an accumulated loss of around Tk 50 crore. It was sold to Nitol Group by the Privatisation Board on March 19, 2000.

Now renamed Nitol Sugar Mill Ltd., the mill is being reopened with a target to double the earlier production, its General Manager Parimal Chakraborty told this correspondent recently.

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The manpower will also be less than one third of its earlier strength under government management, he said. There were over 1500 people including officials earlier. When reopened, it will be run with only around 300 people in three shifts, 100 in each shift, he said.

The mill will run on locally produced sugarcane during crushing season from December to March and on imported raw sugar during rest of the year. Raw sugar to be imported from India and Singapore, the GM said.

He said the manpower requirement will be lesser because modern and sophisticated machines have been installed and the mill will be run more efficiently under private management.

He said the mill will produce 10,000 tonnes of sugar by crushing sugarcane during the crushing season and another 12,000 tonnes from imported raw sugar during rest of the year.

Under the public sector management, the mill used to produce around 8,000 tonnes of sugar. Steps have already been planned so that sugarcane growers in the mill's command area are not harassed or deprived. These include installation of computerised 'weighing bridge' for sugarcane, spot payment to farmers and keeping all relevant data on farmers in mill computers.

He said a distillery unit would also be set up to produce varnish, engine oil and some other by-products from sugarcane. This year, over 5,000 acres of land have been brought under sugarcane cultivation in the mill area, sources said.

Some former employees of the mill and local farmers said the main causes behind the accumulated loss and lay-off were anomaly in disbursing loan among sugarcane farmers, extra benefit and influence by the trade union in the mill, mismanagement and inflated overtime bills.