The announcement on formation of an expert committee for modernisation of the Amaravathi Cooperative Sugar Mill by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin during his recent visit to Udumalpet has been welcomed by cane farmers in the command area in Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Dindigul districts.
A proposal readied by the mill management seeking sanction of ₹160 crore by the government for revamp of facilities and replacement of old machinery has been pending for over two years. The old machinery installed in 1955 had worn out and had to be discarded during 2023.
The committee will formulate the plan of action for revival of the cane crushing infrastructure. The mill has, for the last couple of years, been extracting rectified spirit and ethanol by sourcing molasses from other mills in the State.
The distillery unit in the mill has a capacity to process 100 metric tonnes of molasses per day, generating 225 litres of rectified spirit and 215 litres of ethanol.
Sale of rectified spirit was 42.50 lakh litres valued at ₹21.55 crore during 2023-24. During the year, 7.09 lakh litres of ethanol was produced and ₹3.71 crore was realised.
