Union government has sanctioned two Common Facility Centers (CFCs) worth Rs 30 crore to facilitate industrial development in Punjab.
An official spokesperson said in response to the personal initiative of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, the two CFCs were approved by the Union ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) at a meeting held at New Delhi.
While one CFC for manufacturing oil expellers would be established at Ludhiana, the other would be a foundary and general engineering cluster at Phagwara, according to the spokesperson. To be developed at a cost of Rs15 Crore each, the two CFCs would become operational within 24 months.
The oil expeller manufacturing CFC, which would be instrumental in boosting the export potential from Rs 100 Crore to Rs 250 crore annually, will generate employment for 2000 to 3500 persons.
The Phagwara centre, the first of its kind in north India, will produce aluminum based die engines to replace the conventional cast iron based diesel engine, which are commonly used in agricultural pump sets for irrigation and de-watering in waterlogged areas. With this new technology based on aluminum die, Punjab’s farmers would be immensely benefitted as their input cost per acre would be reduced drastically by Rs 6000 per acre.
To be equipped with the latest integrix-300 machine for manufacturing aluminum die engine, it will not only meet the local demand of engines, but also supply its surplus production in other parts of the country, thus competing with China and Japan in this segment of engines.
The iron based engine is two times heavier and less fuel efficient, besides being more expensive than the cast iron based.
On an average, the weight of Iron engine is 130 kg as compared to 45kg of aluminium-based engine, which is far more fuel efficient, with consumption of 0.4 litre per hour as against 0.8 litre per hour in case of iron engine. Moreover, the cost of aluminium engine is Rs 10,000 while the iron engine costs Rs 15,000.