Karnataka’s first fully automated dairy plant will be coming up at Alanahalli in Mysuru, with a capacity to process nine lakh litres of milk a day.
Mysuru Mega Dairy, a project of Mysuru District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Societies’ Union Ltd., is expected to be ready in two years. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah performed the ground-breaking ceremony to start off the project.
According to estimates, milk production in Mysuru district alone would touch 10 lakh litres a day from the present five lakh litres a day by 2019. The combined production of Mysuru and Chamarajanagar dairies is 8.5 lakh litres.
The existing dairy on Bannur Road in Siddharthanagar has a processing capacity of three lakh litres a day. This plant was started with a capacity to process 60,000 litres and cannot be expanded any longer due to space constraints.
On an average, over 50 tankers arrive daily to the dairy to offload milk collected from producers across the district. This is in addition to the milk supplied in other modes.
Channakrishnaiah, Mysuru Dairy Managing Director, told The Hindu that the mega dairy had become essential owing to the rise in milk production. “It is the first fully automated plant. The one in Bengaluru is semi-automated. The project helps save operational costs,” he said.
Mr. Channakrishnaiah said the existing dairy lacks space for adding new facilities like deep freezers.
Reckoned to emerge as one of the biggest dairies under KMF with 75,000 milk producers under its network, he said the mega dairy will be equipped with facilities to produce 25,000 kg butter a day. A deep freezer for storing butter will be set up at the plant, he said.
“The mega dairy will receive milk only through tankers and will initially have a capacity to process six lakh litres daily. About one lakh litre of curd can be produced,” he said and added that the existing plant produces 60,000 litres of curd daily during peak season.
Once the mega dairy becomes operational, the old dairy would be used to store butter and skimmed milk powder besides installing a deep freezer with 500 tonne capacity, the MD said.
