Ethanol units plan to start operations in Oct following govt relaxation

To add 250 mn litres of new capacity to the existing 2,750 million litres

The new ethanol capacity would not only consume a substantial quantity of excess sugarcane but also help encourage the ethanol-blending programme. Owing to a lack of adequate supply, the government has so far failed to achieve 5 per cent of mandatory ethanol blending with petrol target set four years ago.

Industry sources have estimated the government has achieved the target of 1,130 million litres of ethanol blending with petrol for 2017-18, 71 per cent higher than the previous year.

Meanwhile, the government has announced interest subvention for both greenfield and brownfield ethanol projects. For this the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs amended guidelines on August 9 for easy accommodation of interested investors.

“In the guidelines issued in July, certain sections were left out and we brought this to the notice of the government. The amended guidelines, however, will attract a huge interest of investors towards ethanol production,” said a senior industry official with an interest in distilleries.