Panaji: After two failed attempts, the State government’s plan to revive the Sanjivani Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Limited (SSSK), the only sugar factory in the State, has received a positive response, with four companies coming forward to express interest in the project, reports The Goan Everyday.
In light of this response, the government has decided to extend the deadline for submitting bids to February 5. Earlier, the last date for online bid submission was January 6, 2026, while physical bids were to be submitted by January 8.
The government had invited proposals in November for redeveloping the sugar factory at Dharbandora at an estimated cost of Rs 130 crore under the public-private partnership model.
Public Private Partnership director Rajan Satardekar said four companies have shown interest in the project and also took part in the pre-bid meeting held last month. He said the deadline was extended after interested companies requested more time to prepare their bids.
Earlier efforts to revive the factory through private participation did not succeed. In 2022, two bidders applied under the qualification stage but failed to meet the requirements. In 2024, no bids were received at all.
According to the proposal document, the agriculture department plans to redevelop the existing factory with a sugarcane crushing capacity of at least 3,500 tonnes per day. The project also includes setting up a bottling unit and an ethanol plant with a minimum capacity of 75 kilolitres per day. The redevelopment is planned under a public-private partnership model covering design, finance, construction, operation and transfer.
The factory has around 2.4 lakh square metres of land available for development. As per official data, sugarcane is currently grown on about 550 hectares in the State, producing nearly 60,000 tonnes of cane each year. Before operations stopped in the 2019–20 season, the factory also sourced sugarcane from nearby areas in neighbouring States.
The closure of the sugar factory has affected more than 700 sugarcane farmers in the State. Over the past three to four years, many farmers waited for the factory to restart, but a large number eventually shifted to other crops. As a result, sugarcane cultivation in the State has either stopped or dropped sharply compared to earlier years.
