OREANDA-NEWS. January 6, 2012. India’s largest integrated private power utility Tata Power’s wholly-owned subsidiary Coastal Gujarat Power (CGPL) has achieved another milestone in promoting holistic development of the community around its Mundra project. This time, CGPL’s project Utkarsh has helped increase the per capita income of villagers of Tragadi.

Tragadi village which is situated on the sea-coast of Mandvi taluka comprises 180 houses with a population of 824. Since the village is situated in the coastal region, the salt proportion of the soil is very high, making it unproductive for farming. Due to this, people of Tragadi have been pursuing cattle rearing as a supplementary occupation. Over years, cattle-rearing has emerged as one of the key sources of income in Tragadi, as returns from land are very poor. Further, due to the presence of vendor-based trading in the area, the villagers were unable get adequate leverage from their profession. The cost of rearing livestock was high and the returns from the sale of milk were low.

This impasse triggered project Utkarsh when CGPL held a group meeting in Tragadi village with 34 principal cattle-rearers to impart information on the nuances of this business, livestock and gathering data on milk production. Utkarsh is jointly promoted by CGPL through the Tata Power Community Development Trust and VRTI, Mandvi. During the meeting, it was established that, there was sufficient milk production but the villagers could not profit due to the low prices paid by the vendors. Once the root of the problem was identified, Utkarsh started its work towards arriving at a solution between the villagers and the vendors. Several consultations later, a cooperative of 34 cattle-rearers was formed with the aim of providing information on livestock. Additionally, milk collection centres were also started in collaboration with Sarhad Dairy and an assistance of Rs15,000 was provided for necessary infrastructure and resources.

Within two months, project Utkarsh achieved  wide acceptance among the people and a total revenue of Rs357,142 was generated against a collection of 14,755 litres of milk that re-established the per-litre milk price at Rs24 which is much higher than the earlier price.

Speaking on the initiative, Alok Kanagat, executive director, CGPL, said, “At Tata Power, we aim to make a difference to the quality of lives in our surrounding communities. Utkarsh is a unique initiative and we are happy that it has enhanced the income of villagers in Tragadi village.”