The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has installed a fully mechanised Appam preparation and packing plant at Sabarimala.
The design and fabrication of the experimental unit has been done by SS Automation Solutions Private Ltd., a firm based in Bengaluru. The plant has been installed at the Prasadom Complex at Sabarimala as an offering to Lord Ayyappa, M.S. Suresh, company director, said.
TDB president Prayar Gopalakrishnan, board member Ajay Tharayil, and Devaswom officials inspected the unit on Wednesday. Mr. Gopalakrishnan told The Hindu that the board had been producing one lakh Appam a day, which would go up once the unit was operational. The plant had the capability to nitrogen-pack the product. He said the TDB would order additional units, if the experimental plant met TDB standards and requirements.
Ramaraja Prema Prasad, Devaswom Commissioner; G. Muraleekrishnan, Chief Engineer; K.R. Mohanlal, Executive Officer-in-charge; and P.K.Kumaran, former board member; too were present.
The decision to mechanise the Appam plant was mooted by former board member Subhash Vasu. Mr. Vasu and the then TDB Chief Engineer Jolly Ullas consulted the Bengaluru firm for automating the prasadom plant as well as the ‘bhandarom’ at Sabarimala. The firm made a working model of the unit and demonstrated the process before Mr. Vasu and Mr. Ullas in Bengaluru in May, 2015.
Fewer workers
The company had made presentations on the Appam unit as well as the robot-controlled ‘bhandarom’ before the high-power committee chaired by K.Jayakumar a year ago. At present, Appam is manually produced at the TDB prasadom plant and as many as 200 workers are engaged in the process. The new plant requires only two or three persons to operate it.
