Foundation stone laid for Ramco Cements greenfield unit in AP

The foundation stone for Ramco Cement's Rs 1,500 crore greenfield manufacturing unit was laid at Kurnool district Friday. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu formally laid the foundation stone, the city-based company said in a statement here.

According to Ramco Cements officials, the company is setting up the manufacturing facility with a capacity to produce 3.15 MTPA cement at Kalavatala, Kolimigundla Mandal in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh at an investment of Rs 1,500 crore. The company had obtained environment clearance for the plant and acquired the substantial portion of the land for setting up the facility. "The plant to be a state-of-the-art facility will be a no-emission and no-effluent discharge one and will be model cement plant with least thermal and electrical energy consumption," they said. Construction activities for the plant are expected to be completed within 15 months, and the facility will have Waste Heat Recovery System (WHRS) and thermal power plant to meet its requirements. With the setting up of the new manufacturing facility, 300 new direct and another 1,000 indirect jobs would be created in the region, they said.

A railway line of 25 km from Sanjamala Station to connect the plant and a township for the employees was also planned. On the other initiatives taken up by the company, Ramco Cements said it has planned to expand its clinker capacity from 3.10 metric tonnes per annum to 4.60 MTPA at its Jayanthipuram plant in Krishna district at a cost of Rs 740 crore. "The project is expected to be commissioned in March 2020," it said. The company also planned to expand grinding capacity at its Vishakapatnam facility with investment of Rs 250 crore to 2 MTPA from 0.9 MTPA. "This is expected to be commissioned in March 2020," the release said. Following the investments planned, Ramco Cements would become the largest cement manufacturer in Andhra Pradesh with total capacity of 10MTPA. Apart from the investments planned in Andhra Pradesh, the company said it had also embarked on expansion of grinding capacities in Odisha and West Bengal.

"In Odisha, the company is setting up a greenfield grinding plant with a capacity of 0.9 MTPA at cost of Rs 515 crore with railway siding facility. This is expected to be commissioned by September 2019," the statement said. In West Bengal, the company also taken steps to expand grinding capacity in Kolaghat, East Midnapore at an investment of Rs 425 crore increasing the capacity from 0.9 MTPA to 2MTPA. This unit is expected to come into operation by April 2019, it said. "With capital expenditure plan of Rs 3,430 crore Ramco Cements is set to reach cement capacity of 20 MTPA by end of 2020.

The funds to meet the capital expenditure would be largely met by internal accruals and rest through borrowings", it said. Ramco Cements currently has an installed cement capacity of 12.50 MTPA spread across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It also has captive thermal and windmill facilities of 175 MW and 126 MW respectively.

(With inputs from agencies.)