These were stated by DK Bandyopadhyay, President (operations) of the smelter unit to visiting newsmen on Thursday. During 1998-99 financial year (July-June), the sales from the Tuticorin plant was around Rs 750 crore. For the next fiscal the share of the recently commissioned phosphoric acid plant is expected to be Rs 180 crore, he added.

Presently, the Tuticorin unit has annual capacity for one lakh tonnes of copper anodes, 3.5 lakh tonnes of sulphuric acid and one lakh tonnes of phosphoric acid. It is planning to increase the copper smelting capacity to 1.5 lakh tonnes.

The phosphoric acid, produced using the sulphuric acid, derived as a by- product in copper smelting, and imported rock phosphates, is to be supplied as an import substitute tophopsphatic fertliser plants.

Bandyopadhyay is confident of problem free operations in the coming months as, according to him, "everything possible has been done, and is being continously monitored, to ensure safety of the plant, workers and environment. The company has achieved zero discharge of liquid effluents as the entire eflunets are recycled and used again. Over 98 per cent of the gaseous discharge is collected and used in sulphuric acid plant and the fugitive gases are collected and nutralised with liquid lime. The stack emissions are within permissible levels."

Sterlite has approached the National Productivty Council for making a secured landfill for the slag and solid wastes from the effluent treatment plant as has been recommended by NEERI. Expected to cost over Rs 1.5 crore, its preliminary paper work has been completed and is expected to be ready by year-end.

The company has achieved total quality management (TQM) and is working for International Quality Rating Sytem (IQRS). It is alsoimplementing a Rs 15-crore ERP package, SAP product provided by HCL, linking all the plants and offices of Sterlite Industries all over the country. "The Tuticorin palnt will be on line by July and all the group industries by year-end," Bandyopadhyay said.

The 350-tonne a day phosphoric acid plant is just commissoned and its operations are monitored by an expert, Kavin Wardle, from the technical collaborator, Hydro Agri, Belgium. He had designed the phosphoric acid plant for Sterlite. Incidently it was Wardle who had designed the phosphoric acid plant of the Chennai-based Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation (SPIC) in Jordan. He said the Tuticorin plant has the same design as of the plant in Sweden using the latest demi dihydrate technology that enables 98-99 per cent recovery of the rock phosphate which can be mixed with the sulphuric acid as is imported, without grinding.

The company chief executive officer and president (copper business) CV Krishnan and Bandyopadhyay told the reporters thatSterlite was the first major investor in south Tamil Nadu since the 1970s. In spite of Tamil Nadu attaining the number one slot in industrialisation in the country, the Southern districts of Tuticorin, Kanyakumari, Ramanthapuram and Tirunelveli have been lagging behind with very few fresh investments in the area. Sterlite with its focus on nationally critical core sector contributes to the socio-economic development of southern Tamil Nadu, they said.