Patna, Sept. 19: To revive sick sugar industries in the state, the Bihar government would soon start issuing the Letter of Intent to three different successful bidders for selling them off.

“We have issued Letter of Intent forms to successful bidders and they will have to deposit the form along with 10 per cent of the bidding amount within a month,” cane commissioner Jaimangal Singh told The Telegraph.

Singh said that two sugar mills at Motipur in Muzaffarpur and Banmankhi in Purnea would have a 5,000-tonne crush per day capacity, benefitting around 1 lakh farmers. The two sick units — Motipur sugar mill and Banmankhi — hitherto owned by Bihar State Sugar Corporation would be handed over to Delhi-based Indian Potash Limited and Calcutta-based LMJ International on a lease amount of Rs 56.20 crore and Rs 26.24 crore respectively, he said.

Apart from the sugar factory, these two units would also set up an ethanol plant and a co-power generation plant, Singh added.

However, the third sugar mill, which would be handed over to Delhi-based Prestine Logistics on a lease amount of Rs 23.16 crore at Bihta in Patna, would set up something other than a sugar mill. Therefore, the government has leased out the mill only and not the farmland attached to it, the cane commissioner said.

Delhi-based Rollcon, which made a bid in the first round for Lohatsugar factory in Darbhanga, has also shown interest for taking over the ailing sugar factory once again, sources said.

These three sugar mills made successful bids in the third round of bidding in July, 2010, the officer said. Of 15 government sugar mills, there are still eight ailing sugar mills left for revival. Seven units have been handed over to private parties in the past four years.

Asked what steps the government would take to revive these units, Singh said: “We will seek advice from our consultant, SBI Caps, which has evaluated and fixed the floor price for bidding.”

In the two earlier rounds of bidding, two sugar factories — Sugauli in East Champaran and Lauria in West Champaran — were handed over to HPCL for which a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in January 2009 and cane-crushing is expected to start by the end of this year.

In the third round of bidding, Reliance Industries Limited was the third successful bidder, which later backtracked despite the government’s repeated reminders to start the process of reviving the sick unit after depositing Rs 5.7 crore.

In the second round of bidding, the government handed over two factories Ryam sugar mill in Darbhanga and Sakri in Madhubani to Tirhut Industries.

CHART Heading: BITTER SWEETENER

1) The government floated tenders thrice that helped lease out only seven ailing mills to private parties over a period of four years

2) Appointed consultant, SBI Caps evaluated the mills and fixed a floor price

3) First tender was floated in 2008 when merely three companies, including HPCL and Reliance Industries Limited, won the bid but the latter backtracked later

4) Second bid was floated in 2009 when two companies were handed over to private companies

5) Third round of bidding was completed in July, 2010 when three sugar factories were privatised