A jatropha farm. A Telegraph picture

Silchar, Jan. 16: Two multinational honchos flew down to Cachar on Sunday and named the district as the newest biofuel destination in the Northeast.

The region’s first oil expeller to extract biodiesel from jatropha curcas, a non-edible oilseed bearing plant, will be set up by the multinational D1-BP Fuel Crops Limited in the south Assam district soon.

Ann Cormack, the chief executive of the D1-BP Fuel, made the announcement on Monday night.

Cormack said this oil expeller would be the first step towards establishing the region’s first oil refinery for biodiesel.

D1-BP Fuel is an amalgam of three companies — DI, a British global producer of biodiesel, Williamson Magor, the country’s premier tea group and BP, an Anglo-Dutch fuel oil major.

Cormack said she, accompanied by Steve Douty, the London-based director of the D1-BP Fuel, flew to Silchar on Sunday and visited some of the areas in Cachar district, shortlisted for setting up the oil expeller.

The plant will cost Rs 10 crore and be able to churn out 100 tonnes of biodiesel by utilising crops from 20,000 hectares of jatropha fields in the Barak valley districts.

Jatropha biofuel holds out the promise of a cleaner, eco-friendly alternative to conventional diesel, which will be cheaper to boot.

The biodiesel’s price, as fixed by the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas, would be Rs 25 a litre, said Cormack.

The biodiesel market in the country is now poised for takeoff. Last year, 4,186,400 hectares of land was brought under jatropha farming, said the chief executive.

Jatropha ideally grows on jhum land on the hill slopes, where water does not accumulate.

In the Barak Valley districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi, about 9,713 hectares scattered in 476 villages have been brought under jatropha cultivation.

If jatropha farming has given villagers an alternative crop to cultivate, the oil expeller will also provide employment to local youths.

Cachar will hopefully be able extract the last drop of profit from its jatropha investment.