Staff Reporter
Panaji
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday announced that the state government would soon float a fresh tender to restart the Sanjivani sugar factory at Dharbandora which has been shut since 2019.
“Public-private partnership (PPP) cell has already processed the tender document. It (the tender) will be floated soon,” Sawant said. The government has decided to redevelop the factory on PPP lines.
Request for Proposal were invited twice – in October 2022 and January 2024 but efforts to get suitable bidders remained unsuccessful.
Although the government had come out with a compensation scheme, the local sugarcane farmers who have been hit due to the closure of the five-decade-old sugar factory have been demanding that the unit be restarted.
In 2022, a 21-member sugarcane farmers facilitation committee was constituted which submitted a report to the
government.
The committee made several suggestions for the factory’s revival including changing the system from sugar to ethanol and promotion of jaggery units nearby.
The Chief Minister also announced that a new Goa Dairy plant would be set up at Usgao.
“The dairy will not be shifted; a new plant will be constructed,” he added.