PM Modi to inaugurate Banas Dairy’s automated warehouse system in Gujarat's Palanpur on Oct 30

Palanpur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) at the Banas Dairy’s ultra-high-temperature (UHT) plant in Gujarat's Palanpur on October 30.

Banas Dairy will introduce an automated warehouse system capable of storing dairy products across nine levels, with robotic shuttles handling the movement and retrieval of goods, as the cooperative extends automation from milk processing and packaging to its supply chain operations.

The system has been installed at a cost of Rs 31.14 crore and is designed to store up to 11,000 pallets within a warehouse covering 30,000 square feet.

The facility uses high-density steel racks extending up to nine levels, with automated machinery and specialised software managing storage and retrieval of products.

According to the project details, the warehouse can be operated by just five to 10 employees, with robotic shuttles transporting goods to and from designated storage locations.

The system uses a ‘mother-child’ shuttle arrangement. The mother shuttle carries a smaller child shuttle to the required lane within the racks, where the latter moves between storage positions to place or retrieve pallets and boxes.

The process is intended to reduce manual intervention, minimise errors and speed up the movement of goods.

Under the system, pallets arriving from the packing line will be transported automatically to designated locations, with their positions recorded in computer software.

When a particular product or batch is required, the system identifies its location and moves it to the dispatch area, eliminating the need for workers to search for individual pallets inside the warehouse.

The software will also allow products to be tracked from packing to dispatch, including when a batch needs to be inspected.

The warehouse will primarily store products manufactured at Banas Dairy’s UHT plant, established in Palanpur in 2015. These include milk and other dairy products such as Cow-Buffalo Gold, High Protein Lassi, Apple Tru and Tea Special.

The UHT process involves specialised heat treatment that allows products to remain shelf-stable for up to six months without refrigeration or preservatives, according to the media release.

The Palanpur plant processes around 5.5 lakh litres of milk daily and recorded annual revenue of Rs 1,050 crore in 2025-26.

Operating at approximately 90 per cent of its established peak capacity, it produces milk, Tru beverages, spiced buttermilk, high-protein drinks and ghee.

Its products are sold across India and exported to Singapore, the Maldives, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia.

Traditional warehouses rely on forklifts to move pallets, requiring wider aisles and substantial floor space for manoeuvring. Tracking individual batches among thousands of pallets can also be time-consuming.

The automated system is expected to address these constraints through higher-density storage, computerised inventory records and faster retrieval.

The installation forms part of Banas Dairy’s wider adoption of automation, which has so far focused largely on milk processing and packaging.

Established in 1969, Banas Dairy collects an average of 83 lakh litres of milk daily from more than 4.5 lakh livestock-rearing farmers through 1,505 village-level milk cooperative societies.

The cooperative recorded a turnover of more than Rs 21,200 crore in 2024-25, with 82 per cent of its total revenue returned directly to farmers as remuneration.

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