Lafarge’s Bengal unit to be operational from Sept-Oct
The 1Mt greenfield plant by Lafarge at Mejia in West Bengal is likely to begin commercial production by September-October.
"Lafarge has indicated that it will begin commercial production at Mejia, located on land offered by us, from September-October. They will source flyash from our thermal power plant as per an MoU signed with us," Damodar Valley Corp (DVC) Chairman AK Burman told PTI.
Lafarge had acquired a 1.1Mt clinker plant at Sonadih in Madhya Pradesh and a 1.4Mt slag cement grinding plant at Jojobera in Jharkhand from Tatas in 1999.
The company also has an integrated cement facility located at Arasmeta in Chhattisgarh.
Lafarge earlier announced another greenfield three-million tonne cement plant in Himachal Pradesh at a cost of Rs 900 crore which would be operational from 2010.
The Mejia cement plant initially would be a one-million tonne grinding unit.
The project was delayed as DVC had to relocate it to a different site next to its power plant after it decided to install 1,000 MW (2x500 MW) thermal power plants at the site chosen for Lafarge.
Burman said Lafarge has also indicated that it would double the capacity of the grinding unit at Mejia to 2Mt in the near future. "Beside, Lafarge, Emami Ltd has also expressed interest to install a two-million tonne cement plant at Mejia. When four million tonne cement capacity comes in, we will be able to utilise at least 60-70 per cent of the total ash generation with these cement-makers," Burman said.
The greenfield plant at Alsindi, Himachal Pradesh has increased its cement producing-capacity from 5.5Mt to 8.5Mt.
The company has also firmed plans for hiking production capacity at its existing plant at Raipur.
Published under Cement News
