Gurudwara committee ropes in Ultra modern offset machine to print sacred text

The eco-friendly, Carbon dioxide neutral, four colour printing machine costing around Rs 8 crore will soon start printing.

Siromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee, Amritsar and Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) have only exclusive and legal rights for publication of the authentic version of holy scripture Guru Granth Sahib ji along with other Gurmat literature, (philosophy of the Gurus) worldwide.

"The SGPC controls all rights for the legal printing of the Granth Sahib which is now done in Amritsar and New Delhi only in the entire world. The SGPC and DSGMC are the world's largest publisher of authentic Sikh religious books and literature," said Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the President of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.

He said the new printing press has the optimum capacity of printing 15,000 pages per hour to meet the growing demand of holy book worldwide mainly among Sikh devotees residing overseas.

The new ISO 9001quality management standard and ISO 14001 environment management standard machine which will reduce carbon dioxide emission per sheet has replaced twenty years old two colour printing press which has published approximately one lakh copies of holy scripture in its total life span.

The new machine has been set up in a bid to keep pace with the latest printing technology in the world and meet international standards in printing technologies, said Sirsa.

"Use of ultra-modern machines will save time, reduce production cost and, most significantly, improve the quality," he added.

Sirsa said the Holy Guru Granth Sahib ji will be made available to Sikh devotees on subsidized rates.

"Other Sikh literature, calenders and dairies will also be published in the new printing press to propagate the Sikhism, " he said.

The work for the installation of the new machine was undertaken by Baba Kashmir Singh Bhuri wale who was also assigned with the 'kar sewa' of the new building named as Granth Sahib Bhawan of the printing press.

The 1,430-page Holy Guru Granth Sahib ji which consists of holy verses of Sikh Gurus and 30 other saints like Kabir, Ravidass, Namdev etc will be printed and delivered to devotees in accordance to strict adherence to the 'Reyat Maryada' (Sikh religious code of conduct) .