Madras Cements plans Rs 105cr Kolaghat unit

Kolkata: Madras Cements Limited (MCL) of the Ramco group aims at capturing 7-8 per cent of the market in West Bengal with its upcoming grinding mill at Kolaghat in Midnapore next year.

The current installed capacity in the state was nearly 4 million ton per annum (mtpa), and the market size was estimated at 7mtpa.

The state market was expected to surge with implementation of several announced infrastructure sector projects as well as a host of manufacturing projects in the coming years.

The plant will have an initial capacity of 9.5 lakh ton per annum, that will be scaled up in the coming 3 years to 2mtpa.

The first phase investment in the project was around Rs 105 crore. Work would start by the end of this year and scheduled commissioning date was August 2008.

The project was behind schedule by three months owing to prolonged monsoons, claimed A K Paul, general manager, project & unit head of the plant at Kolaghat.

Madras Cements, with market share of more than 11.7 per cent in southern states, intended to take up current installed capacity of 5.99mtpa to 10.5mtpa by FY09.

The company had two units in Tamil Nadu, and one each in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Tamil Nadu was its largest market, accounting for 46 per cent of despatches in FY07.

The limestone clinker for the Kolaghat unit would be sourced from MCL's Vijayawada Plant in Andhra Pradesh.

The fly-ash for the grinding plant would come from the Kolaghat thermal power station, while gypsum would be sourced from the Tata facility at Haldia.

The plant would have a production capacity of nearly 1 lakh ton per month, to be gradually scaled up depending on demand, said Paul.

In the next phase, investment of Rs 45 crore would be made on capacity addition to take capacity to 2mtpa. A 15MW, Rs 60 crore captive thermal power plant would follow in a bout three year's time, said Paul.