ગાંધીનગર, ૨૯ ઓક્ટોબર, ૨૦૨૬: વડાપ્રધાન નરેન્દ્ર મોદીના ૩૦ ઓક્ટોબરના બનાસકાંઠા પ્રવાસમાં ભીલડીથી બનાસ ડેરીના ₹૪૦૭.૫૬ કરોડના ત્રણ પ્રોજેક્ટ્સ — ભારત બોવાઇન બ્રીડિંગ એન્ડ રિસર્ચ સેન્ટર, સણાદરનો ફ્રેન્ચ ફ્રાઇઝ પ્લાન્ટ અને પાલનપુરની સ્વયંસંચાલિત સંગ્રહ વ્યવસ્થા — નું લોકાર્પણ નિર્ધારિત હતું. સાથે જ થરાદ અને રાધનપુરમાં છાણમાંથી બાયો-સીએનજી બનાવતા બે નવા પ્લાન્ટ્સનું ઇ-ખાતમુહૂર્ત પણ થવાનું હતું.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Gujarat visit on October 30–31, 2026 included a stop at Bhildi in Banaskantha, where three projects built by Banas Dairy — the Banaskantha District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union — were scheduled to be opened. Together they cost ₹407.56 crore. From the same stage he was also to lay the foundation stones, remotely, for two new bio-CNG plants at Tharad and Radhanpur.

This article combines two state government announcements issued before the event, from the Industries and Mines Department and the Energy and Petrochemicals Department. Figures are theirs.

The three projects

Bharat Bovine Breeding and Research Centre, Bhildi — ₹324.77 crore

The largest of the three, and the only one inaugurated on site. The 127-acre centre is a centre of excellence for cattle breeding, run with technical support from the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). It was sanctioned under the Centre's Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund with NABARD finance, and ₹38.83 crore has been approved for it under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission, including ₹2 crore for donor animals. The aim is better-yielding herds through improved genetics.

French fries plant, Sanadar — ₹51.65 crore

At Sanadar in Deodar taluka, now part of Vav-Tharad district, Banas Dairy has been processing potatoes into frozen fries. Work to raise output from 2 to 5 tonnes an hour began in April 2026. The dairy says it controls the whole chain, from tissue-culture plantlets and seed potatoes to cold storage and the finished product. It was opened remotely.

Automated storage and retrieval system, Palanpur — ₹31.14 crore

An ASRS is a warehouse in which machines, not forklifts, put away and fetch pallets. Banas Dairy's version at Palanpur handles UHT milk on steel racks nine levels high, with room for 11,000 pallets. The dairy built it in-house and says the savings flow back to its 4.18 lakh milk producers. It too was opened remotely.

Workers in blue protective gowns and hairnets sort cut potato strips on a conveyor at a french fries processing line Aerial view of a Banas Dairy and Suzuki bio-CNG plant, with white digester domes, a fuel pump and the gate beside a highway The Banas Suzuki Bio CNG fuel pump at the plant entrance, with a car refuelling and digester domes behind Two red tractors with trailers unloading cattle dung at the intake of a large biogas digester A woman in a red sari shovels cattle dung into a tub on a weighing scale beside a tractor trailer
A french fries processing line, and Banas Dairy's existing bio-CNG model: a Banas–Suzuki plant from the air, its fuel pump, tractors delivering dung, and a dairy member weighing dung for sale. Photos: Gujarat Information Bureau (select a photo to open the original).

Two more bio-CNG plants

Banas Dairy buys cattle dung from its members, turns it into bio-CNG for vehicles, and sells the leftover slurry to farmers as solid and liquid organic fertiliser under the Bhumi Amrut brand. Members get a second income from something that was previously waste. The dairy sells its bio-CNG below the price of regular CNG and currently sells about 6,100 kg a day.

  • Running today: four plants processing about 340 tonnes of dung a day — Dama in Deesa taluka (40 tonnes, the first, in 2020) and three 100-tonne plants at Agthala, Bhukhla and Vinchhivadi built with Suzuki Motor Corporation and NDDB. At capacity they can produce about 6,150 kg of bio-CNG, 83 tonnes of solid and 260 tonnes of liquid fertiliser a day.
  • New: Tharad (75 tonnes a day) and Radhanpur (100 tonnes a day), taking the network to six plants and 515 tonnes a day.
  • Climate effect: Banas Dairy estimates the six plants will avoid 33,400–34,600 tonnes of carbon emissions a year, mainly by capturing methane that open dung heaps would otherwise release.

How far it reaches

Banaskantha has about 28 lakh cattle and buffalo, roughly 24 lakh of them with Banas Dairy members, producing an estimated 24,000 tonnes of dung a day. Set against that, the four running plants take in about 1.4% of it, and the six plants together will take about 2.1%. The model works; the headroom is large.

Who was to attend

  • Bhupendra Patel, Chief Minister
  • Shankarbhai Chaudhary, Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly and chairman of Banas Dairy
  • Harsh Sanghavi, Deputy Chief Minister
  • Ministers Jitubhai Vaghani, Rushikesh Patel and Kamleshbhai Patel; ministers of state Pravin Mali and Swarupji Thakor
  • Dr Meenesh Shah, chairman of NDDB; the chairman and managing director of GCMMF (Amul)
  • Sangram Chaudhary, managing director of Banas Dairy

More from Banaskantha

Browse RERA-registered real estate projects in Banaskantha, with registration details for each. Elsewhere on the same trip, the Prime Minister was at Ekta Nagar: ₹426.71 crore of works around the Statue of Unity.

Source

  • Gujarat Information Bureau, Industries and Mines Department: press release dated 29 October 2026, “વડાપ્રધાન શ્રી નરેન્દ્ર મોદી આગામી 30 ઓક્ટોબરના રોજ બનાસકાંઠાના ભીલડીથી બનાસ ડેરીના ₹407.56 કરોડના ત્રણ મહત્વપૂર્ણ પ્રોજેક્ટ્સનું લોકાર્પણ અને એક પ્રોજેક્ટનું ખાતમુહૂર્ત કરશે” (release ID 55398). Available on GIB's Department Releases page.
  • Gujarat Information Bureau, Energy and Petrochemicals Department: press release dated 28 October 2026, “વડાપ્રધાન શ્રી નરેન્દ્ર મોદી 30 ઑક્ટોબરે ભીલડીથી બનાસ ડેરીના થરાદ અને રાધનપુર ખાતેના નવા બાયો-સીએનજી પ્લાન્ટ્સનું ખાતમુહૂર્ત કરશે” (release ID 55359). Available on GIB's Department Releases page.
  • Photos: Gujarat Information Bureau.