Managing director of the Dharuhera based brewery, Inertia Industries, Sunil Tandon says: ``We are pumping Rs 2.5 crore to gear up our plant. The production has started and the bottling will commence within a few days.''

Tandon says his company had suffered a loss of around Rs 8 crore after the brewery was shut down. While all the three breweries in Haryana were closed down in the prohibition period, six distilleries remained operational throughout. ``We incurred heavy losses since a brewery comes under the state license,'' said an executive at Shaw Wallace.

But that is an old story now. Beer manufacturers are now working overtime to establish a stronghold in their segments.

G A Marathe of Shaw Wallace says that their Sonepat based brewery will be dishing out around 3,000 cases per day. ``All our popular brands will be available in couple of months.'' Inertia Industries, makers of Sandpiper and Turbo Beer, are expecting production of about 40 lakh cases per annum. Their Managing Director says, ``This time we are targeting our sales in Haryana. It's on the top of our priority list.''

However, the MD of the Dharuhera based brewery has a word of caution also: ``Beer market in Haryana will shrink due to higher rates.'' Tandon blames the policy of auctioning of vends as the reason for growing `dictatorial attitude' of the contractors. He says that the contractors monopolise the market and the manufacturing units as well.

``They dictate terms by selling liquor at higher prices to the consumer. As the competition among breweries is also stiff, they try to exploit this and impose their terms and conditions on us.''

A Shaw Wallace executive said there should be `free trade' and instead of auction, the ``Govt should give licenses. ``There are free markets in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa where the company opens wholesale outlets and anyone can procure a licence to run a retail outlet.'' The manufacturers are sore over the Govt's decision to apply for fresh licences. They say that it costs Rs 10 lakh to get a new license while the renewal costs just Rs 6 lakh.