The Government Opium and Alkaloid Factories (GOAF) is an

Indian government The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

-owned organisation. Its headquarter is located in New Delhi. The overall supervision of the organisation comes under the purview of Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. There are two factories under this organisation - Government Opium and Alkaloid Works,

Ghazipur Ghazipur is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ghazipur city is the administrative headquarters of the Ghazipur district, one of the four districts that form the Varanasi division of Uttar Pradesh. The city of Ghazipur also constitu ...

(U.P.) and Government Opium and Alkaloid Works,

Neemuch Neemuch or Nimach is a town in the malwa region. Neemuch crowns the north western part of MP. It has been also referred to city of Nature and Peace. The town shares its northwestern border with the state of Rajasthan and is the administrati ...

(M.P.).

Products

The enterprise's two factories specialize in the production of opium and the extraction of related alkaloids (such as Codeine phosphates,

Morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a pain medication, and is also commonly used recreationally, or to make other illicit opioids. T ...

salts,

Dionine Ethylmorphine (also known as codethyline, dionine, and ethyl morphine) is an opioid analgesic and antitussive. Side effects Adverse effects are similar to other opioids and include drowsiness, constipation, vertigo, nausea, vomiting, and respira ...

Morphine Hydrochloride Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a pain medication, and is also commonly used recreationally, or to make other illicit opioids. There ...

Thebaine Thebaine (paramorphine), also known as codeine methyl enol ether, is an opiate alkaloid, its name coming from the Greek Θῆβαι, '' Thēbai'' (Thebes), an ancient city in Upper Egypt. A minor constituent of opium, thebaine is chemically similar ...

, and more). It is the country's largest producer of opium-related products. (

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

)

Cultivation of poppy for factory

The input for factory is derived from licensed poppy cultivators in India from states of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

and

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

. The entire produce is brought by government and which in turn is supplied to GOAF. GOAF delivers the finished products such as alkaloids to

Pharmaceutical industry The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate symptoms. ...

. In 2017,

Central Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

started steps to privatize cultivation and processing of poppy in the country. A trial contract was awarded for a pharma company, ''Rusan Pharma Ltd and Embio limited'' to cultivate poppy in 2 hectares of land and extract the essence using a technology called ''concentrated poppy straw'' (CPS).

Factories

Government Opium and Alkaloid Works, Ghazipur (U.P.)

The

factory began life as the Benaras Opium Agency,''Government Opium and alkaloid factories at a glance''
(

Central Bureau of Narcotics Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN : केंद्रीय नारकोटिक्स ब्यूरो) is affiliated with India's Department of Revenue (IRS) and regulated by the country's Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. T ...

) an entity of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

, in 1820. The opium processed at Ghazipur was sent to Calcutta (now known as

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

) for auction, then shipped to the south China coast and smuggled into the country via the port of Canton (now known as

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

). In 1945, the factory began extracting

alkaloid Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...

s in addition to processing opium. Currently, Sh. Rajendra Kumar, I.R.S. Additional GST Commissioner hold the additional charge of General Manager of this factory and Mr. O.P. Rai, I.R.S. is the Manager/ Asstt. Commissioner of factory along with the other official is currently posted in factory i.e Mr. Ajeet Kumar, C.L.S., Asst.Commissioner(central-Labour Welfare).The Ghazipur opium factory is mentioned in the novel "Sea of Poppies" by Amitav Ghosh. More recently both the

and Nimach factories are referred to as sources of illegal smuggling for opium manufacture in the movie "

Udta Punjab ''Udta Punjab'' () is a 2016 Indian black comedy crime drama film written and directed by Abhishek Chaubey, co-written by Sudip Sharma, and produced by Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Sameer Nair and Aman Gill under Balaji Motion Pictures in assoc ...

" (2016). This factory has connectivity with

National Waterway 1 The National Waterway 1 (NW-1) or Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system is located in India and runs from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal via Patna and Bhagalpur in Bihar across the Ganges river. It is long, making it the ...

. The factory was shut by UP Pollution Control Board in 2017 due to pollution issues and inferior affluent management practices.

Government Opium and Alkaloid Works, Neemuch (M.P.)

The Neemuch factory was founded in 1933. In 1976, it began extracting alkaloids in addition to processing opium. The Nimach factory, also known as Neemuch factory, is an acronym for Northern India Mounted Artillery and Cavalry Headquarters. The opium factory is known to have the largest opium receptacle in the world, resembling a large backyard swimming pool. It holds 450 tons of opium. The contents of the vat are stolen in the anti-heroin novel "White Monsoon" by Scott Nelson. In the novel, White Monsoon was a codename for a 1992 Libyan plot to pose as members of the International Red Cross and travel from Libya to India’s Opium and Alkaloid Works in Neemuch to steal the contents of a backyard swimming pool sized vat containing 450 tons of opium worth 36US billion in 1992. The opium would be converted to 40 tons of morphine base then smuggled into a remote location in Afghanistan to be converted to 40 tons of pure heroin to be sold for bargain-basement-prices on Main Street, America. Shri Naresh Bundel IRS is holding charge of General Manager of Government Opium & Alkaloid Works, Nimach. Shri Raising Rahul (IRS) is the Manager of the Factory.

Organization

After 1976, organisation is headed by the Chief Controller of Factories, currently Shri Anil Ramteke, IRS.

Workforce

The enterprise employs 1,432 people.

Security

Security is managed by members of the

Central Industrial Security Force The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is a federal police organisation in India under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is one among the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). CISF provides security to over 356 industrial units (including ...

, with 123 assigned to the Ghazipur factory and 104 to Neemuch.

Reference

{{authority control Ghazipur Government-owned companies of India State agencies of Madhya Pradesh Pharmaceutical companies of India Opium in India Companies nationalised by the Government of India