Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday laid the foundation stone for a large ethanol production unit in his constituency of Shiggaon in Haveri district.
VINP Distilleries & Sugars, a private sector company, is building the factory at an investment of Rs 380 crore on an 80-acre plot. The factory will also have a 14-MW cogeneration capacity.
The greenfield factory hopes to cash in on the big push blending of ethanol with petrol has received from the union budget. The demand for ethanol is expected to go up as petrol, not blended with ethanol, will attract an additional impost of Rs 2 per litre from October. The factory will have a capacity to produce 300 kilo litres per day (KLPD) of ethanol by crushing 4000 tonnes per day (TPD) of sugar. The factory can produce ethanol from maize and paddy as well.
