Pune: The production unit of Maharashtra State Khadi And Village Industries Board, Handmade Paper Institute, which was closed since October 2018, got a new lease of life and is set to reopen from July 1. 

The production unit of Handmade Paper Training Institute was leased to private proprietor MS Printers since 2010. The production unit was shut for the past seven months as it faced losses due to lack of demand and high cost of raw materials. 

Jeetendra Sonar, Proprietor, MS Printers said, “We were facing losses for the past two years as the demand for handmade paper has reduced in the market. It is a labour extensive work and with increasing labour cost, it became difficult for us to sustain. Since it is an eco-friendly product, the cost of raw materials is also very expensive. There is a huge reduction in demand for paper as nowadays people are using social media to share invites and other things. Hence, as a commercial unit, we do not see any reason to continue with it since it is a loss-making industry.”

“There are certain products such as soap, handmade paper and others which are reserved for village industries but around 2016-17, a stay had been put on this reservation policy. Even the private sector has come up so the competition has increased. This has affected the revenue collection for this industry,” said Sudhir Kenjale, Director, Handmade Paper Institute.

Kenjale said, “The production unit will open from July 1 as it has been leased out to another party. The process of tendering got delayed due to implementation of the Model Code of Conduct. As soon as the code of conduct was lifted, we completed the process and the production unit is all set to open.”

“Since there is a ban on single-use plastic there is a huge demand for paper bags, and with the production unit re-opening, there will be  production of paper bags as well which will generate good revenue,” added Kenjale