From wine to milk, Nandi Cross, which is at the foothills of the serene Nandi Hills, will soon leave its footprint in the State’s White Revolution.
The largest milk dairy in south India is slated to commence production on a 14-acre plot at Nandi Cross. The ₹165-crore dairy of Kolar-Chickballapur Cooperative Milk Union Ltd. (Kochimul) will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday and is expected to give a fillip to milk production and processing in the drought-prone districts of Kolar and Chickballapur.
The dairy can process five lakh litres of milk per day — or, about half the daily procurement from Kochimul — using machinery from Japan, Sweden and Australia.
Kochimul president N.G. Byatappa said, “Just ₹32 crore was spent on civil works while the rest was invested in high-end machinery.”
The factory will start operating after inauguration, and will take at least 12 months to reach full capacity, officials said.
Packing on a large scale
The plant can prepare 6,000 units of 1-litre packaged milk per hour or 18,000 units of 500-ml packaged milk per hour, 1.8 lakh litres of Ultra High Temperature (UHT) milk and 1.5 lakh litres of Goodlife milk.
Apart from this, the dairy will be producing 10 tonnes each of butter and paneer, and four tonnes of ghee daily. Officials said more than 50 sweets, that use Nandini milk, can also be produced.
As value addition can yield better profit, the factory can lead to better prices for farmers.
“We are contemplating giving additional procurement price to farmers once the mega dairy becomes operational and starts earning a profit,” said Mr. Byatappa.
Kochimul has around 2.84 lakh members in 1,834 primary milk cooperative societies.
While the State government had given free land and ₹4 crore, the Centre had given ₹12 crore. Kochimul took a loan of ₹87 crore from the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to fund the construction of the factory.
