Ipcls Nagothane Project Expansion Delayed

The Nagothane expansion programme of Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL) will be delayed to March 1998.

Initially slated to be commissioned by September 1997, the project is likely to be commissioned only in the second half of 1997-98.

The Nagothane expansion programme includes increase in ethylene capacity from three to four lakh tonnes and increase in polyethylene capacity by one lakh tonnes.

This will be the third IPCL project to be delayed in the last one year. The first was the expansion at Baroda and the second was the delay in commissioning of the greenfield Gandhar phase one petrochemical complex.

Both capacities were supposed to be commissioned last year, the Baroda expansion in June and the Gandhar project in September.

The Baroda project finally went onstream in September last year, while Gandhar was commissioned in phases beginning January this year. The delay in Nagothane indicates that volume growth from the expansion will benefit the company only in the 1999 financial year. For fiscal 1998, IPCL will have to depend on Gandhar phase one to provide volumes.