Empee Sugars and Chemicals Ltd, part of the Rs 1,000-crore Empee group, is setting up a state-of-the-art, integrated sugar complex with a capacity of 5,000 TCD (tonnes crushing per day) in Ambasamudram taluk of Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu with an estimated cost of Rs 515 crore. The project will have a cogen power plant and a distillery.

Work on the project has already commenced and the project is likely to be completed by the end of 2009. The company will be expanding the capacity of the integrated complex to 8,000 TCD in the second phase. The plant will include a 50 MW co-generation power plant, which will also qualify for carbon emission certificates (carbon credits) and a distillery with a capacity of one lakh litres per day.

?Keeping in tune with futuristic approaches to farming and the expected demand for the sugar in the domestic market and so, we will be adopting corporate/contract method apart from conventional methods for our cultivation,? Empee Sugars and Chemicals joint managing director K Jayachandran said.

Speaking to FE, he said: ?Given the current trend and the cost of operations, any project less than 5,000 TCD is not viable for the future. Not only that we will also be putting up a mega distillery along with co-generation power project which will make this project a unique one.?

The Rs 515-crore complex will be located on 300 acres of land and we expect the complex to go on stream by end 2009. The funding will be through a mix of equity and debt. We have already placed orders for long-delivery/ major equipment. Bio-compost will be a byproduct of the distillery and we have taken up this as a component of the pollution control exercise,? he said.

According to him,?the company is in talks with Indian Renewable Energy Development Authority (IREDA) and Sugar Development Fund (SDF) as well as few banks for debt portion. We hope to finalise the same in the next one or two months.? The equity component of this project will be Rs 150 crore and the remaining Rs 365 crore will be raised in debt, said P K Viswanathan, chief financial officer, Empee Sugars.

The integrated complex will manufacture Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) and ethanol. The company has already commenced nursery cultivation for cane development. While focusing on corporate/contract farming, the company will also mechanise farming activities. The company has already obtained the sugar licence, he said. Currently, the company has a 3,000 TCD sugar complex with 30,000 litres a day and 20 MW cogeneration power project at Nayudupettai in Andhra Pradesh, he added.

A portion of the power generated will be used for captive consumption to run the sugar and distillery operations. The balance will be exported to the TNEB grid. All the units of the complex are expected to commence operations simultaneously and the manpower requirement for the operation of the complex is expected to be around 500, he said further.