Patna, Jan. 12: This Makar Sankranti, the scramble for milk and curd would not create a bitter situation for those observing the festival.

Patna Dairy Project (PDP) has assured adequate supply of dairy products, particularly for Patnaites. The Bihar State Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation (Compfed) has made special arrangements for the occasion, as a 15 per cent increase in demand for dairy products, particularly milk and curd, is expected in Bihar and Jharkhand.

“Makar Sankranti is observed over five days (January 10-14). We see a surge in demand for dairy products, as people from all parts, particularly from the countryside, place orders in bulk. Hence, we have made adequate arrangements for milk and curd,” Rajiv Verma, the Patna Compfed marketing manager, told The Telegraph.

Verma added: “We will keep tabs on the supply of the products in the city. Our officials will inform the authorities about the shortage of milk and curd in a particular area and the same would be made available within an hour through special transport facility.”

The average daily demand for milk is usually around 1.75 lakh litres in the state capital, which went up to 2.81 lakh litres yesterday and 3.7 lakh litres today. It may further increase tomorrow,” he said.

The dairy has decided to place tankers with storage capacity of 20,000 litres at strategic locations in the capital till January 14 to meet any shortage of milk. These tankers would be stationed on Boring Road and Pirbhore area from 7am to 10am at Rajbanshi Nagar and Dinkar roundabout from 10.30am to 1.30pm, at Jagdeo Path on Bailey Road and Gaighat in Patna City from 2pm to 5pm.

He added that against last year’s sale of 100 metric tonne of curd, this year the cooperative was expecting to sell 115 metric tonne.

When asked from where the additional requirement would be met, Verma said: “Patna dairy procures around 13 lakh litres of milk on a daily basis. To meet our domestic consumption, we have stopped supply of around 2.5-3 lakh litres of milk to other dairies like Mother Dairy of Delhi, Gurgaon and Kolkata units. We have also stopped our powder plant.”

The total milk supply was 55 lakh litres last year which was sold through Compfed’s dairy outlets in Bihar-Jharkhand region. It is expected to touch around 60 lakh litres in the region this year, the marketing manager said.

“There is a huge demand of curd in Patna as people prefer to purchase readymade curd which is of very good quality compared to that available in the market. Above all, people nowadays want to keep off themselves from curd-making process which is a quite tedious job,” Verma said.

He added that it was expected that curd sale would touch 35 metric tonne against last year’s 31 metric tonne in Patna.