LUCKNOW: At a time when chief minister Yogi Adityanathis making visits to districts in Purvanchal, including his home district of Gorakhpur, the cane department is readying itself to provide a sweetener to the eastern UP region. On the anvil is reopening of dead sugarmills located in Pipraich, Munderwa and Rasra.
According to the proposal which may see budgetary provision of over Rs 2,000 crore for this and various other projects in the Budget session of the Yogi government expected to begin in mid-June, the sugarcane department will spend approximately Rs 300 crore each on Pipraich and Munderwa sugarmills and Rs 650 crore on Rasra sugarmill in Ballia for their revival. While Pipraich sugarmill in Gorakhpur and Munderwa in Basti are owned by UP Sugar Corporation, the one at Rasra in Ballia is owned by UP Cooperative Mills Federation.
A delegation of the sugarcane department had earlier visited closed mills of the UP Sugar Corporation and UP Cooperative Mills and had submitted an action plan for their modernization and expansion. It also looked into the ways some of the closed mills could be revived.
Sources said that while Pipraich and Munderwa sugarmills' reopening would cost around Rs 600 crore, Rs 650 crore to be spent on Rasra would in all likelihood be based on public-private partnership (PPP) programme. In addition, a blueprint to restore the glory of Purvanchal is also being prepared under the supervision of CM Aditya Nath Yogi.