Era Group plans Rs 75 cr plant at Pantnagar

Era Metal Building Systems, being promoted by the $100 million Era group of H S Bharana, is setting up a manufacturing plant for preparing pre-engineered building (PEB) material with an investment of Rs 75 crore at the Pantnagar industrial estate in Uttaranchal.

With the New Delhi-based Era group entering into the infrastructure sector recently, this was for the first time that the company was entering into manufacturing also and the factory would employ nearly 500 people, the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) S V Rao told Business Standard.

The plant would be ready for manufacturing in August-September this year with the company hopeful of producing 40,000 to 50,000 metric tons of material per year. "We are installing state-of-the-art machines at our Pantnagar plant which have been imported from countries like Finland, Holland, Italy, Belgium and China," Rao said.

Earlier, the Era Metal was mainly relying on its pilot plant at Ghaziabad. But with the setting up of the new plant, the company is now hopeful of increasing its business turnover to Rs 300 crore from the present level of Rs 25 crore in two years time.

With the industrial deluge continuing in Uttaranchal, the company is presently constructing several PEB structures of various companies at the Haridwar and Pantnagar industrial estates being built by State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttaranchal Limited (SIDCUL).

The Era Metal has already built the factory structure for Alps Industries and Neel Metal at Haridwar among many others. Significantly, SIDCUL has accorded "mega project" status to the Pantnagar plant of Era Metal.

Meanwhile, Rao said the company was also looking for business abroad. For this purpose, the company is already scouting for business in Saarc countries. "Basically till now, most of the business in Saarc countries including India was being done by multinationals. But now we are also in the race," Rao said.