Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on July 4 (Tuesday) laid the foundation stone for the ‘Amul Chittoor Dairy’ here, where the country’s largest ice cream-making unit would come up.
Amul is expected to pump in ₹385 crore into the defunct Chittoor dairy.
Established as a milk chilling centre in 1969, with a daily handling capacity of 6,000 litres, the Chittoor dairy had transformed into a cooperative unit and touched a peak production capacity of 2.5 lakh litres by 1993. It, however, succumbed to the competition from the scores of private dairies and had to be closed down by 2003.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy had promised several times in the past that the Chittoor dairy, which was closed down two decades ago due to mounting debts, would be reopened at any cost.
Jagananna Pala Velluva
The new unit is a part of the State government’s pact signed with Amul to strengthen the State’s dairy sector through the ‘Jagananna Pala Velluva’ programme, the State government’s flagship scheme to strengthen the hands of women cattlerearers.
The Chief Minister said that Amul would establish a massive ice cream unit with ₹150 crore at the plant, which would later be expanded to produce butter, milk powder, cheese, paneer, and yoghurt.
“The new dairy will procure milk from the local farmers and benefit 25 lakh cattlerearers. Similarly, 4,796 automated milk collection centres and bulk milk cooling units will be opened at a cost of ₹2,452 crore, the Chief Minister said.
Deputy Chief Minister K. Narayanaswamy; Ministers P. Ramachandra Reddy, S. Appala Raju, K.V. Usha Sricharan, and R.K. Roja; and Members of Parliament N. Reddeppa (Chittoor) and P.V. Midhun Reddy (Rajampet) said that the new unit would make a great impact on the lives of rural people.
District Collector S. Shanmohan called it a momentous occasion to provide livelihood to lakhs of rural dwellers.
CMC Vellore unit at Cheelapalle
Amul Managing Director Jayen Mehta said the company had established units in 16 states, apart from Gujarat, and assured to pay remunerative price to the milk suppliers.
The Chief Minister later laid the foundation stone for the CMC Vellore’s 300-bed hospital at Cheelapalle in Gudipala mandal.
