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Delta Paper acquires two sugar factories

Our Bureau

VIJAYAWADA, Sept. 6

DELTA Paper Mill, based at Bhimavaram in West Godavari district, has acquired the Hanuman Co-operative Sugar Factory at Hanuman Junction in Krishna district and also the Palacole Co-operative Sugar Factory in West Godavari as a measure of backward int egration. Bagasse produced by these factories would be useful to the paper mill.

Official sources at Hanuman Sugars, which has been in distress for some time, said on Thursday that the factory had been acquired by Delta Paper for Rs 11.4 crore and of the 336 employees in the factory, 200 or so would be retained by the p rivate management and the rest would be retired under a voluntary retirement scheme.

The new management would pay off the arrears amounting to Rs 1 crore or so to the employees and the arrears to the farmers would also be cleared in due course. Hanuman Sugars has a crushing capacity of 1,250 tonnes per day.

The Palacole sugar factory has not been functioning for the past 11 years.

It is learnt that the Government has also privatised two more co-operative sugar factories in the State -the one at Gurajala in Guntur district and the Nandyal factory. The Gurajala factory has been acquired by Nuzvidu Seeds, a Guntur-based seed c ompany.

The State Government has called for bids to privatise the ailing co-operative sugar factories. Only four out of the 16 co-operative sugar units in the State are functioning well.