Business   

Three projects launched in Haldia

Indrani Dutta

Rs. 550-crore Ural truck unit commissioned; stone laid for metcoke plant

Haldia (West Bengal): The West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, on Saturday flagged off three major projects in this port-town, entailing a total investment of about Rs. 1,800 crore. It included a Rs. 550 crore joint venture project for making Russian Ural trucks. This would be the state's first automobile venture since the Birlas set up the Hindustan Motors unit in 1942.

Sharing the dais with the Union Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, at two of the functions, the Bengal Chief Minister exhorted the gathering of local people to cooperate with the management to run the units well. "These are port-based units which will also be exporting their products — please cooperate for a good work culture, and healthy employer-employee relations," he said.

Besides inaugurating the truck unit, the Chief Minister laid the foundation for two units — a Rs. 250 crore sugar processing unit of Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd (SRSL), which with a 2,000 tonnes daily capacity, is being billed as India's largest sugar manufacturing plant, and the Rs, 1,000 crore metallurgical coke manufacturing unit of Tata Steel. The direct employment potential of these projects in the initial stages would be about 2,000.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Ural India unit, the Union Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said the Indian army was among the largest purchasers of Russian Ural trucks in Asia. "Indian army has been using these vehicles for the last 30 years and now it will be able to purchase these trucks from Haldia," he said.

He hailed Russia as a good trade partner. Starting with an initial annual capacity of 7,000 vehicles (mostly imported from Russia in CKD versions), Ural India Ltd (UIL) is targeting a full capacity 40,000 fully indigenised vehicles by 2009. These include heavy-duty trucks, dump trucks and tippers with multiple applications.

Russia's largest auto company, Uralaz, and some Indian investors led by J. K. Saraff, (with interests in travel and real estate), hold an equal share of 44.5 per cent in the Rs. 550 crore UIL, with West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation holding a 11 per cent equity stake. The State government has allotted 300 acres near the Haldia port for this project and Mr. Bhattacharjee said up to 500 acres could be made available.

As for the sugar unit, SRSL, a fully-integrated company making and marketing sugar, power and ethanol, will invest Rs. 250 crore in a sugar refinery. It will move to Haldia the raw sugar that it will produce at its new plants in Karnataka for refining. During off-season it plans to import and refine raw sugar for export from the Haldia port to regional markets like Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indonesia, according to Narendra Murkumbi, Managing Director, SRSL. The refinery will start from March 2007.

Tata metcoke plant

PTI reports:

Tata Steel will invest Rs. 1,000 crore in a new coke oven plant to be set up by its joint venture company, Hooghly Met Coke and Power Company Ltd (HMCPCL), here.

Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony, Tata Steel Deputy Chairman, T. Mukherjee, said HMCPCL, a joint venture with West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), would set up a merchant coke oven unit with a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum.

"The superior grade coke produced by the plant from April 2007, will primarily be used by the blast furnaces of Tata Steel and exported," Mr. Mukherjee, also Chairman of the new company, said.

The company, which had signed the joint venture agreement with WBIDC in January 2005, had decided to increase the capacity from eight lakh tonnes to 1.2 million tonnes during the planning stage, he said.

Besides coke production, the waste heat generated in the process would be utilised to produce 90 MW of power. A power purchase agreement had been signed with the West Bengal State Electricity Board, Mr. Mukherjee said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Three projects launched in Haldia
MPs' panel favours tax on farm income
Banks in queue to augment Tier-2 capital
Tata Motors launches Tata TL
Texas Power's investment plans
Cata to expand operations
No intention to enter mobile telephony or broadband: Sun TV

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu