Bathinda, June 25: Finance Minister Manpreet Badal on Sunday said the state was witnessing an investment of Rs 10,000 crore for setting up 160 biomass plants, extending the farmers the best managerial practices for paddy straw and agricultural waste as also to keep the state’s environment clean.
Laying the foundation stone of a biomass plant of Neway Private Limited at Mehma Sarja village in the district, Manpreet said these plants would provide employment opportunities to around 50,000 people, directly and indirectly. He stated that 160 such plants would come up in the state that would use paddy straw and agricultural waste to produce animal feed as well as coal.
Besides providing perfect solution to straw management, the project would also supplement income of the farmers in nearby areas, as they would be paid for the farm refuse, he said.
The plant at Mehma Sarja will commence operations from August. The plant will buy straw and agriculture waste from farmers, convert it into coal and sell it to the NTPC. With the setting up of this plant, the farmers will not have to burn paddy stubble, which poses a major pollution challenge. The plant would go a long way in ensuring that the farm waste finds proper utilisation and the same does not create pollution.
Manpreet said Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) was also working on a project to produce CNG in the state. Besides, England-based Erika company was contemplating producing bio-ethanol in the state. Prominent among others present included MLA Pritam Singh Kotbhai, ADC Sakshi Sawhney, Neway Renewable Energy Limited chairman Abdul Samad Melath, MD K Aiyyappan, and director operations SK Sivakumar.
Incidentally, former Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal had also laid the foundation stone of a Rs 600-crore bio-ethanol plant in the district around one-and-a-half years ago, but there has hardly been any headway in the project.
The HPCL was to set up the plant whose capacity will be 100 kilolitres of ethanol per day. The plant may use sugarcane, biomass and other agricultural residues like paddy straw, wheat stubble and maize residue for producing ethanol.
Source Tribune India
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