EID Parry lines up Rs 50cr for Kakinada SEZ

EID Parry, part of the Chennai-based $3 billion Murugappa group, is planning to invest around Rs 50 crore in the Kakinada special economic zone.

Murugappa group vice-chairman A Vellayan said of the 250 acres SEZ land, the company would set up a sugar refinery on 50 acre while units related to the food processing industry would come up on the remaining 200 acre.

The sugar refinery is being set up in joint venture with US-based commodity company Cargill and is expected to commence operations in June

The company has entered into an agreement with the Kakinada Port for priority berthing.

Murugappa group director (finance) N Srinivasan said the company was also setting up a 38-mega watt power generation unit. Of this the company would utilise only 8-9 Mw for captive consumption and sell the remaining.

Meanwhile, Coromandel Fertilisers, one of the group companies, is set to start 300 Mana Gromors, an agricultural rural retail centre for farmers, in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu soon. This follows the successful run it had in Andhra Pradesh for over one year.

The retail chain sells fertilisers and agricultural services like soil testing and agri-insurance. It is also looking at financing farmers.