Kamalanagar, 15 November, 2021: The Brick Factory set up at Udalthana-I by Industry Department of Chakma Autonomous District Council was inaugurated today by Dg. Rasik Mohan Chakma, Chief Executive Member, CADC in the presence of his colleague Executive Members, MDCs, CADC officials and village council leaders of Udalthana-I and Udalthana-II. Dg. Lakkhan Chakma, EM, CADC and Dg. Onish Moy Chakma, EM, CADC graced the occasion as guest of honour.
The brick kiln constructed at an estimated cost of Rs.70,16,500/-, funded out of additional Grant-in-Aid Fund, 2019-2020 has a capacity to produce about 5 lakhs of bricks in one go per month. It has a 98 feet high chimney. Kneading of soil and casting of bricks is being done by a machine bought at a cost of about Rs.10 lakhs which has a production rate of 18 bricks per minute.
The completion of the brick kiln has been delayed by about a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dg. Rasik Mohan Chakma hailed the setting up of the brick factory a milestone achievement for CADC with revenue generation capacity of not less than Rs.1 crore per year beside providing opportunities for employment. While stating it as CADC’s first venture in small scale industry he made a point that government job cannot address unemployment crisis but setting up industries and skilling people can.
“We have plan to supply bricks to other parts of Mizoram in the coming days”, he said with euphoria.
“The bricks locally available now are of sub-standard quality and the setting up of the brick kiln is to produce quality bricks at affordable rate”, he said.
“Problem of bad road condition within CADC can be a thing of the past with sufficient production of bricks as we will seek to address it by brick soling the road surface”.
Dg. Lakkhan Chakma, Executive Member, CADC who have had held the Industry Department till recently and during whose stint most of the works of the project were completed, while taking pride in the successful completion of the project appreciated the hard work put by all in the Industry Department especially Dg. Hriday Chakma, the District Industry Officer. However, he cautioned that more than setting up an asset what is more important is its management. He reposed hope and confidence in his colleague Dg. Onish Moy Chakma, EM who have succeeded him being in-charge of the department now.