Currently, a total of 575 sugar mills are registered on the NSWS portal, out of which 534 were operational during the 2024–25 sugar season, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Nimuben Bambhaniya, informed the Lok Sabha.
Responding to questions raised by MPs regarding sugar mills in the North Eastern Region, she said: “There were four sugar mills in the North Eastern Region (Assam – 3, Nagaland – 1), all of which are non-operational. Of these, two sugar mills in Assam are cooperatives. The shortage of sugar mills in the North Eastern Region is mainly due to unfavourable climatic and geographical conditions for sugarcane cultivation.”
“The Government has formulated a scheme namely “Grant-in-aid to NCDC for strengthening of Cooperative Sugar Mills (CSMs)”. Under this scheme one time grant of Rs.1000.00 crore has been provided to NCDC in two instalment of Rs.500.00 crore each in FY 2022-23 & FY 2024-25 for the purpose of borrowing additional fund from the market and providing loans of Rs.10,000 crore to CSMs for setting up of ethanol plant/cogeneration plant and for meeting their working
capital requirement. Under the scheme, NCDC has disbursed Rs.10,005.45 crore to 56 CSMs up to 31.03.2025,” she said while responding to a question on the “Grant-in-Aid to National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) for Strengthening of Cooperative Sugar Mills” scheme.
