Public sector oil company Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Manipur government to source bamboo for its upcoming bio-refinery at Numaligarh in Assam.
The MoU was signed between NRL's Senior Chief General Manager (Marketing) Bruno Ekka and Manipur government's Additional Chief Secretary (Forest) Sambhu Singh in presence of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and NRL Managing Director(I/C) S K Barua yesterday during First Northeastern Development Summit in Imphal, a NRL release said here today.
The pact will enable sourcing of 1.5 lakh tonnes/annum of bamboo with a total turnover of more than Rs 30 crore by identifying bamboo catchment areas for primary processing by the communities.
It will also enable setting up of bamboo processing clusters in the state of Manipur, which will ultimately help the farmers to promote bamboo plantation and processing for value addition in addition to providing large scale sustainable employment opportunities for such farmers.
Possibilities are being explored for availing funds from NABARD for bamboo plantation and setting up semi processing units in Manipur, the NRL release said.
NRL has already joined hands with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to develop bamboo clusters in all the North Eastern states including Manipur.
The Company is looking forward for successful implementation of this MOU for availing long term supply of Bamboo for its Bio Refinery which would be mutually beneficial for both Manipur as well as NRL.
NRLs Bio Refinery is designed to produce 49,000 tonnes of bio ethanol annually with co-production of furfural and acetic acid from locally available non-food bio-mass feedstock.
NRL has already inked MoUs with Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency (NBDA) and Arunachal Pradesh Bamboo Resources Development Agency (APBRDA) for sourcing of bamboo for the Bio Refinery, the release added.
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