JK Cement aims for captive power

JK Cement Ltd is planning to raise resources from the public for establishing an additional coal-based captive thermal power plant of 40mW at its Nimbahera plant campus in Rajasthan. Managing Director Yadupati Singhania said, "We have a captive power plant based on coal as feedstock, but that takes care of only about half of our requirement. The rest is diesel-driven.

Since the price of the latter has become uneconomical, there is urgent need to have another plant based on coal." Asked about the expansion of cement capacity, Singhania said nothing was going to happen in 2006, but thereafter "we may think of expanding. It could be either in Madhya Pradesh, where "we have a part-mining lease in Sidhi, or we may go to Andhra or Karnataka".