The sugarcane crushing operations for the year 2023-24 at Mysugar Factory at Mandya was inaugurated by Sugar Minister Shivanand Patil on Thursday and nearly 3 lakh tonne of sugarcane is expected to be crushed during the present kharif season.
He said the target for the season was to crush 3,000 tonne per day and this could go up to 5,000 tonne per day in the days ahead. To start with, about 1,500 tonne to 2,000 tonne of sugarcane will be crushed and the operations will pick up steam, according to Mr. Patil, who said that a technical snag in the turbine had resulted in a slight delay in the commencement of the operations.
The factory will pay the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) fixed by the government to procure sugarcane from farmers this year, the Minister added, pointing out that the farmers were paid ₹2,800 per tonne of sugarcane last year despite low recovery.
District in charge Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy said the factory had become functional due to the government’s intervention and expressed confidence that Mysugar will functional efficiently.
Sumalatha Ambareesh, Mandya MP, expressed confidence that the functioning of the Mysugar factory and the commencement of crushing operations would augur well for the farmers of Mandya region. There are certain issues plaguing the unit including accumulated arrears of ₹40 crore towards payment of electricity charges and hoped that it would be sorted out in due course.
The factory has already deployed workers for the crushing operations and arrangements were in place to ensure that the crushing was completed within 24 hours of harvesting. The management has assured the farmers that the bills due to them would be cleared within a fortnight after supplying sugarcane.
The 90-year-old factory was revived during the period of former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai after it was shut down due to mounting losses.
