Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy will inaugurate the new fully automated 2.5 lakh litre capacity dairy of the Dakshina Kannada Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd., built at an estimated ₹87.25 crore, here on January 29.
Addressing presspersons here on Friday, Raviraj Hegde, president of the Dakshina Kannada Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, said that currently the union had a dairy of 80,000 litres capacity in Manipal.
But the demand for milk and milk products had increased in the district and this required a bigger capacity dairy.
This dairy, with state-of-the-art technology, had been set up on six acres of land. A loan of ₹65 crore had been taken from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for the dairy.
The new dairy can process 2 lakh litres of milk daily and could produce 50,000 kg of curd, lassi and buttermilk and 2 tonnes of ghee.
With result, products which were being so far being supplied from the Mangaluru dairy will now be produced at this new dairy.
The union will also seek permission from the Karnataka Milk Federation for starting an ice cream plant at the Manipal dairy. Presently, 720 milk producers’ societies and 198 women’s societies were functioning under the Union.
