Jamshedpur Dairy at Gamharia on Friday. Picture by Animesh Sengupta

The summer of 2012 will be creamy cool for steel city Jamshedpur and its neighbours in West Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan districts.

Jamshedpur Dairy — a unit of Bihar State Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation (Compfed) that sells its products under the brand name Sudha Dairy — has decided to add some flavour fun to its milk, lassi and yoghurt.

From the simply exotic vanilla and strawberry to the deliciously desi elaichi and kesar, it will be the first dairy unit in Jharkhand to launch the condiment caper.

And if you thought flavoured lassi and yoghurt don’t make you drool enough, wait for the yummy dollops of ice creams in more varieties than you wished.

Apart from the Patna plant, Jamshedpur Dairy will be the only unit under Comfed to produce ice creams.

Currently, only select Amul outlets offer the delight.

The ambitious project is in line with the mega expansion plans of Jamshedpur Dairy, which is located at Gamharia in Seraikela-Kharsawan.

Chief executive officer of the dairy A.K. Kulkarni said the flavoured products block would come up on 10 acres of land on the dairy premises.

Apart from lassi, yoghurt and ice cream, the separate production block will also make srikhand, a form of flavoured sour curd.

“We have already procured machinery and infrastructure work will begin this month. We hope to finish construction in six months and start production of our flavoured fare array by mid-2012,” he said.

On the prices, he said: “As of now, we are selling pasteurised milk for Rs 27 per litre and toned milk for Rs 30 per litre. But we will fix separate price for flavoured milk once it hits the market. It will be available in disposable bottles in various flavours. So, the price will be a tad higher than normal milk.”

The dairy is the third plant of Compfed in the state, the others being in Ranchi and Bokaro. It produces 100 tonne litres per day, catering to the entire Kolhan region. “We hope to increase production to 200 tonne litres per day after completion of the project in Gamharia,” Kulkarni said.

Sudha Dairy has a 95 per cent share in the milk market in the state. Its Jamshedpur plant has a current annual turnover of Rs 120 crore.