A vendor sells fans made of bamboo. A file picture

Guwahati, Oct. 20: The National Mission on Bamboo Applications (NMBA) and the department of science and technology (DST) will support the establishment of six to eight bamboo processing units in each state of the Northeast. This is intended to provide value addition, income and employment.

Union minister for science and technology Kapil Sibal, who recently visited the Northeast, said he has requested state governments to identify locations for the units.

The Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh governments have agreed to provide locations to the DST by November this year.

The Nagaland government has already established the Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency, which is being developed as a strong agency for the bamboo sector in the state. The agency has set up an integrated bamboo processing and treatment facility, which will be functional by November and has provisions for entrepreneur-based activity.

There is also a provision for the treatment of bamboo plants using available technology.

The NMBA, structured as a technology mission, is one of the key initiatives of the department of science and technology for the Tenth Plan.

It has been given the task of creating the grounds for enlarging the bamboo sector. It will also support the efforts of the Centre in augmenting economic opportunity, income and employment.

Experts say the raw stock of bamboo in the region is valued at Rs 5,000 crore and utilisation of even about 25 per cent can generate Rs 2,500 crore a year.

Sibal also announced that NMBA has approved the establishment of a pilot production facility for bamboo-based hygiene products and wound dressings at Dimapur, with technical support from Shri Ram Institute of Industrial Research, Delhi. It has set February 2007 as the target for commissioning of the unit.

Sibal said the DST and NMBA are prepared to support the expansion of mat weaving activities to other clusters in Nagaland for supply to industrial scale manufacturing units.

In his discussions with Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio, Sibal said DST would encourage utilisation of bamboo in government housing and construction programmes.

He said bamboo pre-fabricated structures for public domain buildings, especially for school construction programmes, hospitals and dispensaries linked with Union government programmes, would be supported.

A 50-bed hospital for children at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh, covering an area of 5,000 square feet, is also being reconstructed using bamboo-engineered materials.