Tyre makers investing Rs 100 cr in NE, Bengal for enhancing rubber production, says association

Tyre manufacturing companies are investing Rs 100 crore in the Northeast and parts of West Bengal for skill development of growers and creating infrastructure for increasing the quality and production of natural rubber, their association said. The initiative has been undertaken as part of Project Indian Natural Rubber Operations (INROAD), said Arnab Banerjee, the chairman of the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA).

Banerjee, who is also the MD of CEAT Ltd, said INROAD is a first-of-its-kind project in the world under which the tyre industry is contributing directly towards the development of rubber plantations.

It is financially supported by ATMA members — Apollo, CEAT, JK and MRF, and implemented by the Rubber Board of India, he said.

In the last four years, an area of 1,25,272 hectare has been covered under new rubber plantations across 94 districts in the Northeast and West Bengal, he added.

This represents one of the highest rubber plantations ever achieved in the country in a such span of time, Banerjee said.

During this period, a record 5.3 crore planting materials were distributed among people with land holdings of less than 1 acre, he said. Banerjee said the objective of Project INROAD is not only enhancing the production of natural rubber but also its quality that fetches better prices for the growers. Under the project, training is being provided through the digital mode and also infrastructure such as model smokehouses and processing and grading centres are being built, he said.

The first such model smokehouse was inaugurated on Monday by Banerjee for a women’s cooperative in Assam’s Goalpara district.