Work to install an additional milk storage tank at Aavin’s Sholinganallur dairy is progressing well, and is expected to be completed in two months.
On commissioning, Aavin will increase its milk supply to the city by 50,000 litres. Presently, it supplies 11.50 lakh litres of milk a day to Chennai and its suburbs.
The Sholinganallur dairy processes around 4.5 lakh litres of milk a day, their facility at Ambattur processes 3.5 lakh litres and Madhavaram dairy 3.2 lakh litres. The city also gets 1.8 lakh litres of milk from Villupuram.
The silo — the tall storage tank — costs Rs. 65 lakh. The Sholinganallur dairy already has seven silos that store unprocessed milk brought in by tankers. Milk is stored at five degrees Celsius in the silos made of stainless steel. A system called ‘cleaning in place’ or CIP is used to clean the silos.
Minister for dairy development, V. Moorthy, visited the dairy on Monday, and directed officials to ensure supply of milk and milk-based products, including butter and ghee, to consumers.
Aavin, the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation, supplies 3.5 tonnes of butter a day in the city.
Meanwhile, industry sources said there was talk of prices going up. Consumer card holders can expect the price of a litre to go up by Rs. 6, and the maximum retail price may go up by Rs. 2 a litre, said an industry source. However, Aavin refused to confirm the reports.
