Power Milk Factory goes idle in lack of operating modalities

By Our Correspondent,Hetauda, Jan. 8: The powdered milk factory built with the investment of the Bagmati Province government is idle in lack of operating modalities. The factory was built without an operating modality, and even after a long time the factory was built, the industry has not been operational.

The factory was constructed in Hetauda through the Province Dairy Development Board under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development of the Bagmati Province

The Board and Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development of the Bagmati Province are confused about the management of manpower, cost, operating model, and raw materials required to operate the factory.

As the operating modalities were not made at the time of preparing the project proposal, the factory has been allowed to operate the Dairy Development Corporation for the time being as trial production.

Secretary at the Ministry Binod Kumar Bhattarai said that an alternative was sought after the government saw problems in operating the factory itself.

Although the concept of establishing the industry was brought to prevent the milk produced by farmers from going to waste and to avoid the problem of Milk Holiday, the factory was built without a detailed study.

But, due to the lack of operating modalities, the industry has been unable to operate at full capacity. The construction of the factory, which was started with an agreement on December 24, 2019 and was to be completed on December 29, 2021, was completed almost two years late.

A study committee formed under the coordination of Deependra Shrestha, member of the Provincial Policy and Planning Commission, Bagmati Province, to study the modality in which the provincial government should operate, has submitted a recommendation report to the provincial Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development, Prakash Shrestha.

Member of the Commission Shrestha said that the study committee formed to formulate the operating modality of the Hetauda Powdered Milk Industry has submitted its report recommending the operation of the factory under the concept of Public-Private Cooperative Partnership (PPCP).

He said that the operation of the industry under this model will benefit the dairy farmers of Bagmati and contribute to building the foundation of a prosperous Bagmati. Although the initial cost estimates for the construction of the industry was Rs. 412.271 million, it was increased to Rs. 473.324 million citing various reasons.

The powdered milk factory, which is being built on an area of two bighas of the Animal Feed Production Factory of DDC located in Sisaughari, Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City-10. The factory which is being operated by the DDC will have a daily production and packing capacity of five tonnes of powdered milk and will consume 50,000 litres of milk daily.

Although the construction was completed a year ago, the ministry has been forced to operate the factory on a trial basis because it has not prepared an industry operation action plan. Shrestha said that an Act should be made to operate the factory according to the PPCP concept and said that it would take at least six months to formulate the act.

Stating that the provincial government has suggested operating the factory with a 55 per cent investment from the provincial government, 30 per cent from the private sector and 15 per cent from the cooperatives, he said that a report has been submitted with a share capital of Rs. 50 million.

Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development of Bagmati Province Shrestha said that the report has been received and that the study is in progress. He said that the government will make the necessary decision along with the preparation of modalities for operating the factory after the study.