PANAJI
Nearly nine months after inviting fresh bids to revive Goa's lone cooperative sugar factory, Sanjivani Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Ltd (SSSK), the State government is yet to finalise the successful bidder, with the proposal remaining pending for approval for over two to three months.
The bid evaluation process was completed in March, but the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) department has been unable to move ahead due to delays in obtaining consent from the Agriculture Department and the government.
"The file has gone for approval for acceptance of the bid. The matter is pending with the Agriculture Department for quite some time now," a senior PPP official told The Goan. "We are hopeful of closing the matter by this month-end or before the Ganesh festival," the official added.
The delay comes even as the Convention Centre project, for which the Request for Proposal (RFP) was floated simultaneously in November last year, has already completed the bidding process and the work order has been issued to the successful bidder.
The government had invited bids to modernise the factory with a minimum sugarcane crushing capacity of 3,500 tonnes per day (TCD), along with establishing an ethanol distillery of at least 75 KLPD, an Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) bottling plant and a petrol pump. The project, estimated at around Rs 130 crore, will be executed under the Design, Finance, Build, Operate and Transfer (DFBOT) model on approximately 2.4 lakh square metres of land.
Unlike the previous two attempts, the latest tender generated encouraging interest, with four companies participating in the bidding process. The submission deadline was extended to February 5 following requests from prospective bidders.
Earlier attempts had failed to attract investors. In 2022, two bidders participating in the Request for Qualification (RFQ) stage failed to qualify, while the 2024 tender received no bids.
The Sanjivani sugar factory has remained shut since the 2019-20 crushing season, severely impacting more than 700 sugarcane farmers across the State. Many cultivators, after waiting years for the factory's revival, have either shifted to other crops or drastically reduced sugarcane cultivation.
Despite the prolonged closure, the government last month extended financial assistance to the loss-making cooperative for another year to meet employee salaries and operational expenses. With the latest extension, the State is expected to have spent nearly Rs 35 crore in grants since the assistance scheme was introduced in 2020.
