Durg plant to start production by Oct-Dec quarter: JK Lakshmi

JK Lakshmi Cement today said its Rs 1,500 crore manufacturing facility at Durg in Chhattisgarh will start production by the October-December quarter taking the overall capacity to around 10 million tonnes per annum.

"The 2.7 mtpa Durg facility will be commissioned by third quarter of the current fiscal. Our cement-making capacity will go up to to 9.3 mtpa with the commissioning from 6.6 mtpa now," JK Lakshmi Cement's Whole-Time Director Shailendra Chouksey told PTI.

The company is also putting up a 6.5 LT grinding unit in Surat. With the completion of this project, its cement capacity will further rise to 10 mtpa.

The Durg facility, a greenfield unit, is being built on around 600 acres at Ahiwara village with Rs 1,500 crore investment.

The project had last year attracted wrath of local people who set on fire a portion of under-construction plant reportedly angered by the reluctance of the company to give jobs to project-affected persons. This caused serious damages at the construction site.

JK Lakshmi Cement, Chouksey said, has increased capacity in last fiscal by over 1.3 mtpa and plans to invest another Rs 600 crore in current fiscal, mostly from internal accruals, including in its Durg facility.

"Our annual capex is around Rs 600 crore and this year also, we are planning to invest somewhere around that," he said.

In 2013-14, it augmented clinker capacity by 3.3 LT to 46.20 LT and commissioned its second grinding unit of 6.57 LT in Haryana. Besides, the company has augmented capacity of the grinding unit at the mother plant at Sirohi.