The Hindu Business Line : Hindustan Paper to set up bamboo tissue culture lab

CONSIDERING the fact that the conventional bamboo seedlings route now being adopted is a time-consuming affair, the State-owned Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) has decided to set up a tissue culture laboratory in collaboration with the National Mission for Bamboo Applications.

The laboratory is being set up at the company's Nagaon paper mill in Assam, based on latest technology for plant propagation.

According to HPC sources, about two million seedlings of appropriate bamboo species are expected to be available every year from this lab covering two hectares of land.

In fact, the company has submitted a plan to utilise the degraded forestland or wasteland in the vicinity of its two paper mills in Assam for raising captive plantations.

As both the mills (in Nagaon and Cachar) are bamboo based, all out efforts are being made by the company to propagate bamboo plantation to ensure easy availability of raw material in future.

After meeting its own bamboo requirements for paper making purposes, HPC has plans to set up a project for proper utilisation of bamboo dust.

In fact, generation of gas from bamboo dust-based gasification plant will substitute 25 per cent of the furnace oil requirements in the proposed lime sludge re-burning kiln.

The project, with partial funding from Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council, in association with the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources, is likely to take off by December. It is pointed out that HPC mills in Assam depend completely on raw bamboo locally available and from adjoining States for its fibre line.

Bamboo is an eco-friendly crop and a renewable raw material resource. Therefore, a network of decentralised semi-automatic small-scale chipping units employing women could be an ideal model for village community self-help groups.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Hindustan Paper to set up bamboo tissue culture lab

NCCL may split shares

Rain Commodities allotment

Anil meets SEBI chief

Nothing stalls a machinery from its `installed' status

RBI plans to amend norms to widen corporate debt recast scope

CAG finds fault with surplus land sale of NTC unit

UK footwear, apparel brand DAKS ties up with The Loft

GAIL, NTPC reach pact over gas supply

R.K. Jain is NTPC Director (Tech)

IDBI chief arrested for `casteist' remarks, released