By IANS
Patna : India’s major corporate houses, including Reliance Chemicals, Tata Chemicals, Bharti Mittal Group and state oil companies have placed bids to revive 15 closed sugar mills in Bihar.
Sources in the government said Friday several private players are in the race for the 15 closed sugar mills belonging to Bihar State Sugar Corp.
“Reliance Chemicals, Tata Chemicals and Bharti Mittal Group have filed their bids for the closed sugar mills,” a senior official said.
Major oil companies, including Hindustan Petroleum, Indian Oil Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd have also filed their bids for the mills.
Reliance Chemicals had filed 15 applications for the closed sugar mills.
Other private companies from Karnataka have also expressed interest in the bidding.
In a bid to attract investors, the Nitish Kumar government had decided a few months ago to revive the closed sugar mills by handing them over to private players on a long-term lease through bidding.
The decision was based on a feasibility study carried out by SBI Capital.
The government had engaged SBI Capital as a consultant to conduct a diagnostic study for the revival of all closed sugar mills.
In its report, SBI Capital, after assessing the assets and liabilities of these units, said only eight mills could be turned into profitable ventures.
These are Banmakhi, Goraul, Hathua, Lauriya, Motipur, Warsliganj, Lohat and Sugauli.
The state government had set a deadline of February next year for leasing out the mills and two distilleries to private investors.
“We hope everything will be completed by January 2008, and the final agreement a month before the official deadline,” sugarcane development minister Nitish Mishra said.
Mishra said the government was hopeful the sugar mills would become operational by 2009-10.
Earlier, the government had announced an attractive sugar policy and incentives for investors.
According to official sources, the 15 closed sugar mills have total assets worth Rs.7.5 billion.
The mills have 3,397 acres of land, 662 acres of planted land and 2,690 acres of farmland.
Bihar Industries Minister Gautam Singh said big industrialists have been showing keen interest after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar initiated some measures to develop the state’s infrastructure.
“In two years, the state government, led by Nitish Kumar, has cleared over 100 proposals for projects worth over Rs.400 billion,” Singh maintained.
Most of the investments are in power, sugar and cement sectors.
Proposals cleared by the state government include setting up of 14 ethanol plants, four each for maize processing and cement manufacture and three power plants.
After coming to power in Nov 2005, the Nitish Kumar-led government had initiated measures to build the state’s infrastructure, including roads, bridges and power, to attract investors.
The government has also prepared a land bank to make land available to investors.