Grasim Industries, the flagship of the Aditya Birla Group has sped up the process to set up its cement mining facility at Himachal Pradesh to hit production before end of the tax package. The 1.3 million tonne plant entailing an investment of Rs 1,200 crore will be the second cement mining capacity (after Rajasthan) in North to the cement majors portfolio.
“The project will become operational before the termination of industrial package in March 2009,” OP Puranmalka, Group executive president, marketing and strategy told FE. “The land acquisition process is already on and the mining capacity would be 6,000-7,000 tonnes per day, ” he added.
He said that the company is steadily expanding its operations in the northern region including grinding and ready mix cement business. “Out of 60-70 ready-mix-cement plants to be set up across the country around 40% will be located in the northern states,” he revealed. The company is also vying to set up another grinding facility in Punjab apart from increasing capacity of its existing unit at Bathinda district. Grasim cement currently has 11 composite plants, seven split grinding units and four bulk terminals in the country.
Apart from Grasim Industries, four other major company’s are investing in cement sector in Himachal pradesh. The players include Lafarge, world’s largest cement producer, Jai prakash Associates , Gujarat Ambuja Cements and ACC. The total cement production is expected to cross 17 million tones by 2009 in the Himachal Pradesh when the proposed plants hits production. Sources in the state government said that the companies have speed up their projects to benefit under the tax package available till March 2009.
Lafarge, the world’s leading cement maker with 132 plants across the globe, has porposed to invest Rs 900 crore.