Agartala, Oct 17 (IANS) A Mumbai-based industrial group which set up India's first "bamboo park" in Tripura for the production of bamboo floor tiles will soon start exporting these to European countries, officials said here Thursday.
Mutha Industries Private Limited (MIPL), based in Mumbai, set up the Rs.50 crore factory to make bamboo floor tiles in western Tripura, on a 10-acre plot of land, using technology imported from China and Taiwan.
"We will start experimental production this month-end. The international-standard commercial production would start within the next three months," MIPL's assistant general manager Sanjoy Singh told reporters.
"Bamboo-made floor tiles have huge demand in European markets, as also India. We would first export our products to European countries and then to other parts of the world," Singh said.
"Chinese and Taiwanese technologies were used, and machinery from these places were used to set up in the industrial unit. Engineers of the two countries have helped us a lot in setting up the industry," Singh said.
The bamboo floor tiles factory was set up at the bamboo park in Bodhjunjnagar Industrial Growth Centre, 15 km north of here.
The factory would initially require 10,000 tonnes of bamboo a year to produce 50,000 tonnes of floor tiles. Gradually, the production will be increased.
MPIL also has ambitious plans for bamboo plantation in Tripura.
"International-standard bamboo flooring and partition tiles would be produced on a commercial basis from this industrial unit. Several hundred people will get employment directly and indirectly because of the unit," an official of the Tripura industry department said.
The Tripura government, five years ago, began developing India's first bamboo park at a cost of Rs.30 crore on 70 acres of land to help expand bamboo-based industries. Bamboo is also known as "green gold" in the northeastern region.
According to Tripura's Industries, Commerce and Forests Minister Jitendra Chowdhury, the bamboo park would produce hundreds of value-added items and facilitate the export of bamboo products.
Of the 1,250 bamboo species throughout the world, India has 145.
Bamboo forests in India occupy approximately 10.03 million hectares, and comprise about 12 percent of the total forest area of the country.
About 28 percent of these bamboo forests are located in northeast India.
With 19 to 20 species available, Tripura is one of the major bamboo producing states, harvesting 1.5 million tonnes of the total 13.67 million tonnes of bamboo harvested in the country each year.
|
|
Comments:
