Guwahati, Jan. 25: The Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre in the Assam capital will collaborate with the Bangalore-based Indian Plywood Industries Research and Training Institute to chalk out a strategy for reviving the plywood industry in the Northeast using bamboo.
This was decided at a regional seminar on ?Revival of closed plywood industries in northeastern region using bamboo? in Calcutta. The seminar was organised by the Bangalore-based institute in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Plywood and Panel Industry and the West Bengal forest department.
Industry representatives said since the plywood factories have been closed for several years and have accumulated liabilities, their revival using bamboo as raw material would require a special package to make it financially viable.
They also appreciated the need for utilising bamboo as the raw material for production of panel material and products in addition to using plantation timbers. The institute has developed technologies for industrial utilisation of bamboo.
Director-general of forests in the Union ministry of environment and forests, S.K. Pande, said there is little possibility of supplying industrial wood from forests and the industry has to switch over to plantation woods and other renewable fibres.
However, several experts were apprehensive about the availability of bamboo and the problem related to clearing the liabilities of the closed factories. They said the revival package would look into the aspects of tax exemptions available to new factories in the Northeast.
The delegates suggested that the states of the region should release data on availability of bamboo to enable the entrepreneurs to plan the revival of the closed units.