Aims to unseat Maharashtra from second spot in country The State would soon dislodge Maharashtra from the second spot in biofuel production in the country, by increasing its production to 200 million litres by this year end, said Y B Ramakrishna, executive chairman of Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board (KSBDB) on Thursday. Presently, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra occupy the top two slots. He told reporters that the State produced six lakh tonnes each of honge and neem seeds every year. He said, according to a rough estimate, the State had biofuel related plantations of 1.35 lakh hectares and there was scope for a plantation area of 14 lakh hectares more. By the year end, the State would invest Rs 200 crore under various schemes to give a boost to the sector, he said. KSBDB officials said a private company had set up a biofuel production unit with a capacity of 3,000 litres a day in Peenya Industrial Area, Bangalore. Southern Biofuel was producing 50,000 litres at its unit near Devanahalli. The company had tied up with the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) and was presently, supplying fuel for 20 per cent of the ground transport vehicles there. They said the government was in talks with BIAL to run 1,400 taxis attached to the airport on biofuel. Only 35 per cent of the biofuel produced was being utilised, he added. Green fuel outlet Ramakrishna said a green fuel outlet, a first of its kind in the country, would be opened at Madenur in Hassan district in three months. The opening of the outlet, being set up in association with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, had been delayed due to land acquisition problems and they would be sorted out soon. The biofuel bunk, on the Hassan-Channarayapatna highway, would get supplies from the nearby biofuel park, which has a capacity of 300 litres per day. The State government has planned to open 20 such bio-diesel outlets in a year’s time. As many as 70 institutions had been identified to aid bio-fuel research. A total of 746 seed centres would be opened in the next one year to cultivate and supply bio-fuel, he added. ‘Biofuel mela’ from August 10 The Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board (KSBDB) will organise a ‘biofuel mela’ from August 10 to 12 to mark the International Biofuel Day. Y B Ramakrishna, executive chairman of KSBDB, said the mela scheduled to be held in Chitrakala Parishat (CKP) will have a range of events, information sessions, demonstrations, exhibitions, cinema and stalls by various stakeholder organisations, besides a variety of cultural programmes based on the biofuel theme. As many as 37 bio-fuel related projects by college students from across the State will be exhibited, he said. KSBDB, in association with CKP, will also organise a painting competition on July 12 for primary and high school students with biofuel as the theme. Details can be had on www.karnatakachitrakalaparishat.com or phone number 9972127937. Interested may register their names on or before July 10. The Board will also conduct a poetry competition on the same theme on July 30 for students. Posters on Biofuel Day and the activities to be taken up have been sent to around 14,000 high schools across the State. August 10 is observed as ‘International Biodiesel Day’ every year to mark the successful operation of Rudolf Diesel's prime model engine, a single 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, which ran on its own power for the first time in Augsburg, Germany in 1893, using groundnut oil.