Tyre makers to invest Rs 1,100 cr to increase rubber plantation in NE, Bengal

Guwahati, Nov 5 (KNN) With the aim to increase the rubber plantation in the North East region and West Bengal, four leading tyre makers have decided to invest Rs, 100 crores as part of a five-year project being implemented by the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA) in association with the Rubber Board.

Apollo Tyres, CEAT, JK Tyre and MRF together pledged Rs 1,100 crore over the next five years as a “business investment” to increase rubber plantation in seven states of the region and West Bengal, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA) chairman Satish Sharma said on Friday.

“This is the first of its kind project in the world where the consuming industry is working in collaboration with government agencies to ramp up production of natural rubber to increase the availability of this strategic raw material,” he added.

Talking to PTI in Guwahati, Rubber Board executive director KN Raghavan said there is a huge demand-supply gap of natural rubber in India and the country highly is dependent on the import of the commodity.

“Against India’s consumption of 12.3 lakh tonnes of natural rubber in 2021-22, the domestic production stood at 7.7 lakh tonnes. It is estimated that the demand for natural rubber will grow to 20 lakh tonnes by 2030,” he said.

Raghavan further added that the country imported 5.46 lakh tonnes of rubber, mainly from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), resulting in an outgo of Rs 7,500 crore during the last fiscal.

“On this backdrop, the ATMA came forward to increase domestic production of natural rubber. After a discussion among the stakeholders, we decided to launch a special scheme in Northeast India as it holds immense potential for rubber plantation due to the availability of land and suitable climatic conditions,” he added.

As part of the project, ATMA plans to develop two lakh hectares of rubber plantation in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and West Bengal.

The country produces 7.75 lakh tonnes of natural rubber every year, of which 73 per cent is consumed by the automotive tyre segment. The rest goes to cycle tyres, conveyor belts, balloons, condoms and footwear, among others.

At present Northeastern states contribute 18 per cent of the production. Once additional two lakh hectares of rubber plantation under the scheme is achieved, Northeast’s share is estimated to increase up to 32 per cent.

The region, which currently produces around 1.5 lakh tonnes of natural rubber from existing two lakh hectares of plantation, is likely to produce six lakh tonnes by 2032, the Rubber Board executive director said.

The project is expected to boost the socio-economic conditions as farmers with land holdings of less than one acre are being engaged at present.  (KNN Bureau)