The plant will come up on a 10-acre plot. The government had transferred the land as non-agriculture land only last month for this project, which was conceptualised in 2002. The cost of the project will be around Rs 6.5 crore.

“The government did not declare the land in Savli as non-agricultural land for long. Last month, the dairy got the required permission after seven years. The dairy plans to set up another plant at Sadli in Shinor taluka once the Savli plant comes up,” said Ravindra Mathur, the MD of Baroda Dairy.

The dairy was finding it difficult to transport milk from Savli and the chilling plant was the need of the hour.

“We were having a lot of problems in transporting milk from areas around Savli due to heavy traffic. Sometimes, the milk would get spoilt during transportation,” said Mathur.

Meanwhile, another project that has not seen the light of the day is the one pertaining to a mineral water brand, which is still three months away.

The project aims to produce mineral water from the plant in Vadodara. Conceptualised by Baroda Dairy chairman Madhu Shrivastava, the project would take at least three months to fructify.

The dairy plans to produce around 50 litres of water per day initially.

The dairy wants to sell water in Baroda now; later, it will market it through the ‘Amul’ brand all over the country.

The water will be available in pouches, bottles and bulk packs. Even if the machinery is tested for producing mineral water, there are several permissions and certificates, which have to be acquired before the mineral water actually reaches people.

Another major problem is the pipeline, which is supposed to transport water from the Narmada Canal to the plant in Vadodara. It needs major repairs before the project is started.

Mathur said, “It will take another three months to bring everything in order. We have already tied up with the Ion Exchange India and in the next one month we will get the plant ready.”

The dairy has decided to name the product as Narmada Neer. The union wants to cash in on the ‘holy’ Narmada water.

The project was conceived as an offshoot of a project of drawing river water for consumption at the dairy last year. The dairy used to spend Rs 50 lakh per annum on water for its various processes. This apart, the water quality was doubtful.