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'No more moving around': Pulwama man sets up Kashmir's first 'milk ATM'

Srinagar
March 12, 2021

Shabir Ahmad Wagay, a young professional milkman from Pahoo village in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, would incur losses amounting to thousands on a daily basis during summers as a good quantity of milk would curdle in transit from the south Kashmir district towards Srinagar during transportation.

While travelling to New Delhi for some work, Shabir saw milk dispensing machines in the city. The loss afflicted businessman at once got the quick fix and on his return to the valley, set up the first of its kind milk dispenser in his home town in the south Kashmir district- the Milk ATM’.

Shabir said that after being depressed by the daily losses, he stopped supplying milk to the Srinagar city and confined his business in the nearby villages only.

But Wagay’s latest novelty in the town now serves fresh milk to every passerby in need irrespective of where he or she comes from. The milk dispenser, which has a capacity to accommodate 500 litres of milk at once, was installed on Sunday March 7 and according to Shabir, the machine has dispensed more than 100 litres a day on an average since then.

The machine has an inbuilt ACMU (Automatic Milk Control Unit) which dispenses an accurate amount of milk as per the inputs given by the customer.

It is also fitted with a SNF (Solid Non- Fat) calibrator which checks the fat percentage in the milk and cautions if there is an excess of water or fat saturation in the milk.

As an inaugural day gesture, Shabir said he provided 250 litres of milk free of cost to the customers in a bid to let them first taste and check the quality of his product and then if satisfied, purchase it.

Shabir sells the milk at Rs 40 a litre and customers can pay through cash or a special card. But Shabir said the cash option has been disabled for now even though he hoped it would be resumed soon.