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Labland to electrify Malaysian villages with jatropha oil

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Gouri Satya Chennai/ Mysore
Last Updated : Feb 05 2013 | 3:06 AM IST
Malaysia has evinced interest in cultivating the bio-fuel yielding Jatropha plants for rural electrification project in Sarawak in Malaysia. It has earmarked about 5,000 hectares for the purpose.
 
A 16-member team comprising of ministers and members of parliament from the State Government of Sarawak, Malaysia, visited the Labland Biotech facility in Mysore last month and evinced interest in its work in the plant science area.
 
Rural electrification in Sarawak is not of good quality. A two-member team of the Labland earlier had visited Sarawak and suggested Jatropha bio-fuel as an alternative fuel for electrification.
 
"A Team from Sarawak had visited China on a similar mission. However, it was not happy with the progress there. Hence, they identified us and the proposal is in the final stages," Labland Chairman Sudheer Shetty told Business Standard.
 
Labland has offered an end-to-end solution to the power problem, starting from planting of the Jatropha up to power generation using the oil extracted from Jatropha. The project comprises of manpower training, material support, implementation of the plantation activity, its management, oil extraction, installation of DG sets and power generation, he said.
 
"The visiting team was impressed with our progress in the plant science area and our technological strength. They have set apart 5,000 hectares. The project is said have been cleared by the cabinet there. Anyway, we are yet to hear from them officially," the chairman said.
 
Apart from the likely tie-up with Malaysia, the plant science company is also expanding its plantations across the country.
 
Besides, about 100 acres of Jatropha plantations in and around Karnataka already under contract cultivation, Labland Biotech Pvt Ltd has now established 310 acres of Jatropha plantation at Bada in Gujarat.
 
It has become the first Jatropha tissue culture firm in the country to secure accreditation from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. The accreditation has come from the National Accreditation Agency of the Department of Bio-tech. "We are the first company to have the accreditation," Shetty said.
 
As part of its corporate social responsibility, Labland has taken up plantation on the road medians all along the 5.5 km long K R S Road.
 
According to Labland Managing Director Geetaa Singh, the company has spent about Rs 2.5 lakh on cleaning, planting and maintenance of the 5.5 km median. The project is in association with the Lions Club of Mysore West.
 
"On an experimental basis, we had planted some Jatropha in front of our unit on the KRS main road. These plants have been growing so well in the last three years we were encouraged to plant Jatropha on the entire stretch of the road median," she said.

 
 

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First Published: Jan 28 2008 | 12:00 AM IST

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