Swc, Basu Meet On Capacity Hike

Shaw Wallace & Co managing director Ravi Jain and his core management team met the West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu yesterday to discuss the capacity expansion of Bengal Distilleries and the setting up of a new brewery at Dankuni.

The Bhadrakali-based Bengal Distilleries is in the process of being shifted to Dankuni while undergoing a 100 per cent capacity enhancement from 60,000 cases of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) per annum.

This will involve an aggregate financial outlay of Rs 22 crore. SWC has also moved an application to theWest Bengal government for grant of a licence to set up a Rs 21 crore, 2.5 lakh hecto litre per annum brewery at Dankuni where the company has already acquired nearly 20 acres of land for a planned 30-acre modern distillery-brewery complex.

 

The project has received the go-ahead from the West Bengal Pollution Control Board.

A company release said the chief minister has assured the SWC management of his earnest help in facilitating investment in the state.

The SWC team urged the chief minister to expedite the remaining approvals so that production could commence without further delay.

Ravi Jain apprised the chief minister about the developments in the negotiations with the employees union for optimum floor space utilisation at Wallace House, re-employment of surplus labour and the voluntary retirement scheme proposed by the management.

Jain also assured Basu that the recent movement of the company's corporate headquarters will have no adverse impact on its plans for further investment in the state.