Comfed managing director Harjor Kaur inspects the cheese production plant at Dehri-on-Sone, which the chief minister will inaugurate on April 25. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary

Residents would no longer have to step out of the state to bite into a mozzarella or a cheddar cheese. The two products would soon be launched from the Sudha Dairy stable.

The raw material used for making the products would be prepared at a newly built milk plant at Dehri-on-Sone in Rohtas district, around 165km southwest of the capital.

Built at an estimated cost of about Rs 25 crore, the plant would be inaugurated by chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday.

Nitish would also lay the foundation stone of a milk powder plant worth Rs 115 crore at Dehri-on-Sone.

Bihar State Milk Cooperative Federation Limited (Comfed) managing director Harjot Kaur inspected the newly built plant (the first of its kind in the state) on Tuesday and took note of the processing and preparation of milk products.

Kaur said the state would become self-dependent in production of cheese after commissioning of the new plant at Dehri-on-Sone.

“At present, there are two milk-chilling plants at Kochas in Rohtas and Dumraon in Buxar under Shahabad region,” she added.

The chief executive of Shahabad Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union Limited, S.K. Mishra, said mozzarella would be used for making Sudha brand of pizzas.

The processed cheese would also be prepared and packed by the plant for marketing, he added.

The chief executive said the Shahabad region, which comprises Rohtas, Kaimur, Bhojpur and Buxar, recorded the collection of 3 lakh litres of milk per day during the financial year 2012-13.

The Dehri-on-Sone plant would get milk supply from the four districts, he added.

Rajesh Kumar, the technical officer of the plant, said: “The unit is ready for commissioning. Other products of Sudha Dairy like dahi, paneer, gulab jamun and rasgulla would also be made here. The plant has a capacity to produce products from about one lakh litres of milk per day.”

On the proposed milk powder plant, Mishra said it would have a storage capacity of 5 lakh litres per day.

The plant receives excess milk from producers sometimes during three or four months of the year. “The plant will help the dairy make optimal use of milk stored at the chilling plants,” he added.

Statistics available at the Comfed in Patna revealed that there was an increase of 42.5 per cent in the sale of milk products in the state in the last financial year.

Besides Bihar and Jharkhand, the dairy supplied packaged milk to parts of Odisha, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

A total of 7.58 lakh milk producers are getting benefits through Comfed.

Patna Dairy Project, Bihar’s flagship milk co-operative society sells its products under the brand name Sudha.