Verka Milk Plant to get Rs 123-cr machine to prepare curd, lassi

Amritsar, August 25

Four years after becoming fully automatic and increasing its daily milk processing capacity to 2.5 lakh litres per day, which can be increased to 5 lakh litres, a new feature in the form of an automatic machine to prepare curd and lassi at a cost of Rs 123 crore would be set up at Verka Milk Plant, in Verka area here.

Narinder Singh Shergill, Chairman of Milkfed Punjab, who today inspected the project, announced the new feature to be added in the 61-year-old plant. The new automated curd and lassi unit will be installed by the National Dairy Development Board. Shergill said the project would be completed in about two years.

The entire Board of Directors of Milkfed was also present during the visit of Shergill. The milk plant at Verka was a brainchild of former chief minister Partap Singh Kairon. Verka was the first milk plant to be set up in north India in Verka, a suburb of Amritsar, which became operational on March 23, 1963. It was only the second in the country after the one at Anand in Gujarat, which later became famous for the Amul brand of dairy products.

The machinery for the local plant was gifted by a US firm and the finances came from the Central government. Like Punjab Agriculture University, the Bhakra Nangal Dam, and Chandigarh, this was another of Kairon’s ambitious projects to bring about a revolutionary change in the state. Undoubtedly, the beginning was humble with a capacity of processing 60,000 litres of milk per day.

Till 1988, the Verka plant remained under the Punjab Dairy Development Cooperation, which was directly under the state government. However, it has now come under Milkfed (Milk Federation) like all other milk plants that have been set up by the government in the state.