SAMBALPUR: THE Orissa State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited (OMFED) has set a target to double milk production in its Goshala plant by April next year.
Informing this, General Manager of Goshala plant Kishore Kumar Nayak said presently the plant processes 50,000 litres of milk per day. After expansion, the capacity will be enhanced to one lakh litres per day, he said.
The proposal for expansion was mooted in September 2014 and accordingly, construction was started. Spread over six acres of land along NH-6 at Goshala, the plant has enough space for expansion.
The civil work for expansion is nearing completion and machines have also been procured, Nayak said. The Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) has also issued No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the purpose, he said and hoped that the expansion work will be completed by April, 2017.
This apart, work on setting up of an ice-cream plant at Goshala is also underway and this too is expected to be functional within a year. The ice-cream plant is being set up under Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana (RKVY) with capacity to produce 3,000 litres of ice-cream per day, Nayak said.
Presently, about 80,000 litres of milk is procured per day from 440 Milk Cooperative Societies under Samaleswari Regional Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited from across the region.
While 50,000 litres of milk per day is processed at Goshala, 30,000 litres is despatched to the Rourkela plant. The dairy farmers of the region are producing around one lakh litres of milk per day. However, the Omfed is unable to procure all the milk due to low capacity, Nayak stated.