Kantalai Sugar Factory to be revived:

Sugar production to increase to 60 pc

Plans have been formulated to revive the Kantalai Sugar Factory which has been closed down 19 years ago, said Sugar Industries Minister Lakshman Seneviratne.

He said so at a discussion held at the factory premises to prepare the groundwork for re-opening the factory recently.

"The objective for the Ministry of Sugar Industries is to increase local production to 60 percent of the local demand," he said.

Seneviratne said it was in 1994 that plans were formulated to dismantle the Kantalai factory.

The main objective of the President and the government was to resuscitate industries facing destruction in the march towards development.

Minister Seneviratne said whatever said and done, the factory could not be re-opened in a hurry. The machinery had rusted and the fleet of vehicles were in a state of neglect.

Everything including machinery and vehicles had to be replaced and the reservoirs had to be rebuilt.

Therefore, the revival would be undertaken in stages following the new technologies adopted by leading sugar factories in the world.

The country today produced only 6 percent of its total sugar requirement.

He said certain opposition quarters ridiculed the appointment of a separate Minister of Sugar Industries. But the country earlier had separate ministries for coconut industries and ayurveda etc and these sectors had made a great headway under separate ministries.

Buddhasasana and Religious Affairs Minister M K A D S Gunawardena and Economic Development Deputy Minister Susantha Punchinilame also spoke.

Eastern Provincial Council chairman Ariyawathie Galappaththy, ministry officials, officers looking after the factory premises and representatives of farmer associations attended the discussion.