Guwahati, Oct. 2: The West Assam Milk Producers' Cooperative Union Ltd (popularly known as Purabi Dairy) is set to expand its reach to markets in Upper Assam, a move that comes as another milestone after scripting a turnaround eight years back.

The area of operations has till date been confined mainly to Kamrup (metro) district and parts of Kamrup, Morigaon, Nagaon and Barpeta districts. The milk-producing capacity of the union, which was formed in 1989 and was taken over by the National Dairy Development Board in May 2008, has increased from a trifling 500 litres per day then to over 50,000 litres per day at present.

For a start, Purabi will dispatch its products from its Panjabari-based plant here to Jorhat, home to the East Assam Milk Producers' Co-operative Union Ltd, which had, like Wamul, stagnated for long, only to be taken over by the NDDB.

"We will launch our marketing operations in Jorhat from this month. We have identified at least 10 places in the town where whole-day milk booths are being set up. The East Assam Milk Producers' Cooperative has a parlour as well. As of now, a promotion campaign, including branding, is on," an official from the marketing department of Wamul told The Telegraph.

The Assam government plans to set up a plant in Jorhat in due course.

"Till the government facilitates the requisite infrastructure (processing plant/packaging equipment), Wamul will meet the requirements of milk and milk-based products in Upper Assam from its Guwahati plant," he said.

A milk distribution route is being chalked out in the first phase. "We will slowly expand to places such as Sivasagar and Dibrugarh apart from catering to areas such as Bagori, Kohora, Numaligarh and Bokakhat en route to Jorhat," he said.

Purabi Dairy plans to increase milk production by about 10,000 litres per day by March 2017 to cater to the additional demand from Jorhat.

Wamul is implementing a dairy development plan, the focus of which has been on the uplift of animal breeding, including providing artificial insemination facilities on the doorsteps of dairy farmers.