The newly formed Balodabazar district in Chhattisgarh is all set to become the cement hub of the country.
The new district on Wednesday came into being with Chief Minister Raman Singh inaugurating the District Collectorate office in Balodabazar—about 75 km from here—on Wednesday afternoon. The district has been carved out of Raipur.
The existence of Balodabazar as a separate district has paved way for becoming the cement hub of the country with maximum facilities located in the area. Chhattisgarh has seven cement plants, of which four including the major groups like Lafarge, Ambuja, Grasim and Utra-Tech are located in Balodabazar.
The total production capacity of cement in the state is 13.8 Million Tonne Per Annum (MTPA). The companies are planning expansion of the capacity while many other prominent groups are also investing in cement sector in Chhattisgarh.
With the expansion plan and new projects, the cement manufacturers in Chhattisgarh plans to add over 100 MTPA capacity, which would account to 51 per cent of India’s current cement manufacturing capacity.
The two new mega cement projects coming up in the state will also be set up in Balodabazar. This would take the number of cement plants in the district to six. According to industrialists, this would be an unusual thing to have six cement plants in a single district.
