Panaji: State govt will float a fresh tender to invite bidders to redevelop the existing Sanjivani Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Limited (SSSK) at Dharbandora, said chief minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday.
After it was decided to redevelop the sugar factory and set up an ethanol production plant through a public-private partnership (PPP), state govt floated a request for proposal (RFQ) on two different occasions in Oct 2022 and Jan 2024.
The first time, two companies showed interest, but both bids were rejected for not meeting the technical qualification criteria. On the second occasion, not a single bid was received.
As the factory will be developed under the design-build-finance-operate-transfer (DBFOT) basis, govt intends to pre-qualify and shortlist suitable bidders who will be eligible for participation at the bid stage for awarding the project by way of a transparent and competitive bidding process.
In May 2022, state govt decided to redevelop the SSSK, Goa’s sole sugar factory, which is over five decades old. To this end, it constituted the Sugarcane Farmers Facilitation Committee, consisting of 21 members under the chairmanship of NRI commissioner and former MP, Narendra Sawaikar, to recommend appropriate measures to resolve the various hardships faced by sugarcane farmers.
In its report, the committee recommended immediate action, including an intensive extension of services to farmers for increasing their sugarcane production, adoption of suitable varieties of cane with high sugar content, the establishment of a demonstration-cum-seed farm in the sugar factory’s premises, modernisation of the existing factory to increase its efficiency, changing the production system from sugar to ethanol, and promotion of jaggery-making units in the sugarcane growing belt, among others.
State govt has shortlisted the land belonging to the SSSK at Dharbandora to set up a permanent campus for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Goa. The new campus for the National Forensic Science University (NFSU) is also being constructed on the sugar factory land.
