Assam Bio Ethanol Private Limited (ABEPL), a joint venture between Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) and two Finnish companies, will begin sourcing bamboo from 18 districts in Assam, including Sivasagar, during the first phase of its ethanol production operations. To facilitate this, ABEPL has identified strategic locations for aggregation and processing centers within its sourcing region.
Recently, a team from ABEPL, including Tonmoy Chutia, Manager, and Akash Jyoti Mahanta, Executive Trainee in the Supply Chain and Logistics Department, visited the Kamalabari bamboo plantation developed by the Garupawan Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) in the Nazira sub-district. Kamalabari, a popular tourist destination located in the Geleky Reserve Forest on the Assam-Nagaland border, served as the venue for a meeting where Chutia and Mahanta explained the importance of bamboo farming for bioethanol production. They encouraged local bamboo farmers to register with ABEPL’s digital supply chain platform. During the meeting, they also announced the establishment of a bamboo processing plant (aggregation cum processing center) at Kalgaon, Geleky.
Chutia told that ABEPL has developed a comprehensive supply chain model that will source bamboo directly from both individual farmers and farmer groups. The aggregation centers will process the bamboo into chips, roughly one square inch in size, which will then be transported to ABEPL’s Numaligarh plant for further processing into bioethanol and other products, reported The Assam Tribune.
Bamboo will serve as the primary feedstock for NRL’s ethanol production. To support the growth of bamboo plantations in the region, NRL has established three advanced bamboo nurseries in collaboration with Assam’s Forest Department. These nurseries will supply bamboo saplings to farmers across Northeast India.
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