Sunday, November 29, 2009

Belgaum Processing Node

Wonder Grass and Bamboo-Tech, Belgaum have principally agree to enter into a joint initiative to establish and run a Processing-Node for Building-system requirements using Bamboo.

This is the first step in establishing similar such partnerships across India to build the backward linkage for Wonder Grass building-requirements in the urban and rural markets across India. The partnership enables these two organisations to bring together respective strengths and develop a synergy which will translate into increase in the capacity to provide bamboo building services on-call and on-demand.

A team of 3 artisans (Amol, Sachin and Pravin) from Wonder Grass have initiated the works at the Node. We started with sizing and grading of some of the bamboo purchased last year, and then moved onto procurement of new bamboo lot. Amit is a coordinator of works on ground while Samir provides oversight to the operations.
Mr. Kanbargi (senior) is taking a keen interest in the works at the day-to-day operations at the node, he is personally looking after the establishment of the center and giving directions to the team on ground.
The Workshed is being revamped and infrastructure is being developed as and when required. First set of treatment chambers and tanks started operations in the first week. The treatment and seasoning operations are in full swing, we are carrying out seasoning of 75-100 bamboo poles per day.

On the other hand we are developing a network of vendors and suppliers for bamboo. We are also in discussions with the Dept. of Forests to see if we can source bamboo from them on a regular basis. Initial discussions with the officials have been very encouraging.

This region is experiencing flowering of bamboo for a year now, this a very serious concern in this area. Huge bamboo stocks are still standing in the forests and drying, this needs urgent attention.

No comments: