Patna, Dec. 30: The state government’s attempt to revive the ailing sugar factories in the state has received a lukewarm response from private investors. Of the 44 tender documents purchased by 12 firms from across the country, only six bids have been submitted for just three sugar mills.

A senior officer of the sugarcane department told The Telegraph: “We were quite optimistic about the interest of the prospective investors in nine sugar mills. But unfortunately, the department got only six bids for three mills.”

The last date of submitting tender documents was December 22. This is the fourth attempt of the sugarcane department to conduct bidding to lease out the ailing mills for setting up either sugar factories or other industrial or commercial units. Despite three successive bids, the government has been able to hand over only six out of 15 sugar mills on lease to private parties.

Asked about the reasons for the poor response, the official refused to comment. “Any investor will weigh all pros and cons before making an investment of around Rs 300 crore for a sugar factory.”

The fate of the other units hangs in the balance.

Sugarcane department principal secretary C.K. Mishra, who is also the principal secretary of the industries department, told The Telegraph: “The state government has decided to give the land of the sugar factories to the Infrastructure Development Authority for industrial purpose. It will help the government in creating a land bank.”

Sources said SBI Capital Markets Limited would process the bids that the state government has received. The bids are likely to be opened within the next fortnight.

The investment bank, which is also the consultant of the government, has fixed the floor price for bidding of all sugarcane factories. Even the consultant has stated that most of the units are not viable for running sugarcane factories because of space constraints. It felt that the units should be used for other industrial purposes.

Only two factories — one at Hathua in Gopalganj and the other at Lohat in Madhubani — have adequate land to set up factories with a capacity of over 5,000 tonne crush per day. The other sick units cannot be used to set up sugarcane factories as they have very little land.