TNPL board unit near Chennai likely to complete by year-end

Plant is expected to provide direct employment to over 400 people and indirect employment to 1,500 people in the region

The 200,000-tonne capacity board plant being set up by Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Paper Ltd (TNPL) near Manapparai, 50 km from Chennai, is likely to be completed by the end of this year.

Erection of board machines, boilers and power plant is going on in full swing and the entire work is expected to be completed by this year, official sources said.

TNPL will manufacture double-coated white backboard, folding box boards and liquid packaging boards to cater to the needs of pharmaceuticals, healthcare, food and cosmetics and publication sectors.

The plant is expected to provide direct employment to over 400 people and indirect employment to about 1,500 people in the region, the sources said.

The plant will primarily cater to the needs of pharmaceuticals and healthcare sector, food and cosmetics and publication industry.

Ancillary industries such as paper reel, waste paper supply and transportation sectors are expected to benefit once the plant goes on stream.

The current expansion of TNPL also includes a 30-MW power plant and an automatic reel and sheet storage system with a capacity to store 40,000 tonnes of paper board.

TNPL, the largest bagasse based paper mill in the world, consumes about one million tonnes of bagasse annually.