Patna, April 15 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar termed the Pepsi bottling plant of Barauni as first of its kind in the state and said that more such units would be set up in the state in future. After inaugurating the plant setup at Asurari in Barauni block headquarter at an expenditure of Rs 550 crore, Kumar told news persons on Friday after inspecting the unit that the factory has started operating from Friday itself. He said that the products manufactured in the factory would be used within the state and outside Bihar . Replying to a query regarding industrialisation the Chief Minister said that his government since beginning was striving for it. The then union government during 2007-09 did not allow to frame the related law. Now the centre has approved and the unit has started production. The Chief Minister said that his government was interested to start ethanol manufacturing in the year 2007-08 and proposals more than Rs 20000 crore were mooted but the then union government did not allowed for it. Kumar said that the present union government has allowed ethanol manufacturing in the entire country and now Bihar government was also working at a faster piece for installation of Ethanol units He said that the centre has approved installation of 17 ethanol production units in Bihar where such factories would be established in near future. Varun beverage Limited has set up the unit on the land of Bihar industrial area development authority at Hawaaspur in Barauni of Begusarai district where carbonated soft drinks, packed drinking water, fruit juices and other such soft drinks would be manufactured. The capacity of this plant is 10 lakh bottle per day which would cater the increased demand of the soft drinks during summers.This unit has provided direct employment to 500 people and indirect employment to nearly 700 to 800 people.(UNI)