Kidderpore Unit To Be Expanded

ITC Ltd plans to pump in substantial investments to introduce new packaging machinery into its cigarette manufacturing unit at Kidderpore, where it plans to increase the capacity from the current 4.8 billion sticks to 12 billion sticks per annum.

The increase in capacity will be executed over a period of the next three years. ITC has already applied to the government for the productivity licence for increasing the capacity. ITC has recruited 100 more persons into the unit last year and this year, the new packaging machinery will be installed for brands such as Wills Filter, Gold Flake Filter and Gold Flake Premium, which are among some of the brands that roll out of the factory. " For a unit that was on the verge of closure owing to troubles during the Naxalite period, it has come a long way. In fact for ITC, the Kidderpore unit is now a kind of show piece, as it is doing exceedingly well", points out ITC's spokesperson. ITC which is currently facing a halt in production in its cigarette manufacturing unit in Munger is expecting to break the current impasse within this week.

According to an ITC spokesperson, this trend is not unusual especially when a long-term pact on wages between the workers and the management is going on. Each unit has a union which operates independently. ITC, recently had a similar 'strike' at its Bangalore unit for a day, when the long-term wage pact was in the process of being signed up.