Jaiprakash to invest Rs 1,250 crore in HP

Jaiprakash Associates Ltd, the flagship company of Jaypee Group, would invest Rs 1,250 crore in raising its clinker and cement manufacturing capacity at its existing facility in Himachal Pradesh. At present the company has installed annual capacity of 4 million tonnes, including capacity of clinkers and cement in the state and it plans to add additional annual capacity of 2.5 metric tonnes by 2012.

It is worth noting that Jaypee Himachal Cement Grinding and Blending Plant, a unit of Jaiprakash Associates Limited, was commissioned recently. The State-Level Single Window Clearance and Monitoring Authority had cleared the project in September, 2004 and with other requisite clearances/approvals, the construction of the plant was started in 2005. At present, the plant has an annual capacity to produce 1.75 MT of cement and the company has invested Rs 2,000 crore in the project.

In an interaction with Business Standard, Jaipraksh Associates Ltd, Chief Financial Officer Rahul Kumar said, “We would invest Rs 1,250 crore at the existing location in Himachal Pradesh to increase capacity of our cement and clinker manufacturing facility. We would be adding another annual capacity of 2.5 MT capacity.”

The proposed capacity shall help in overall development of not only the region but also the entire state of Himachal Pradesh. With commissioning of the plant, many ancillary businesses like hotels, repair shops, diesel pumps etc are likely to come up in the vicinity to support the operation of the plant. The plant will, therefore, prove to be a bBoon to the people as well as the state.

The company is in the midst of capacity expansion of its cement business in Northern, Southern, Central, Eastern and Western parts of the country and is slated to be a 22.80 MTPA cement producer by the year FY10 and 33.55 MTPA by FY12 with captive thermal power plants totaling 702 Mw.

He also added that 1,000 Mw the Karcham Wangtoo Hydroelectric Project located in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh would be commissioned by 2011.

Meanwhile he informed the associate, group company Jaypee Infratech Ltd. is planning to raise Rs 1,650 crore through intial public offer, which is likely to hit the capital market by March 2010. Out of the total proceeds from the offer, the company will utilise Rs 1,500 crore in developing the 165-Km long Yamuna Expressway and related real estate projects.