Production resumes after three days

Rangpur Sugar Mill Ltd in Gaibandha resumed production yesterday morning after being shut for three days due to collapse of the foundation base of the boilers.

The mill started crushing sugarcane on December 7, but after 30 minutes of operation, the machine went out of order due to a major fault and remained shut down for three consecutive days.

According to officials of the mill, they were compelled to shut down as the foundation base of three boilers nearly collapsed half an hour after crushing started. A team of experts from Dhaka rushed to the mill and replaced the damaged portion of the boilers.

Meanwhile, the sugarcane growers had to halt supply of the item to the mill. The sugarcane piled up in the mill's compound is drying up, growers said.

This year, the mill fixed a target of crushing 80,000 tonnes of sugarcane from 5,780 acres land and producing 5,600 tonnes of sugar. Last year, the mill produced 3,135 tonnes of sugar by crushing 47,000 tonnes of sugarcane. The mill expects to achieve its target this season.

This season, the mill will run for 50 days as adequate suagrcane is being harvested from the mill's farm and eight sub-zones of sugarcane fields in the district, said Rangpur Sugar Mill Ltd Managing Director Anower Hossain Akanda.

This year, production of sugarcane is satisfactory, so the mill is expected to achieve the target of sugar production, he added.