 "Asian Paints 3rd plant in south India hinges on land")
"I am not going to speak about the exact location of the project as long as I am not getting the land. I can only say it will be in South India and it will be 600,000 KL capacity plant and the investment will be Rs 2,500 crore," Asian Paints Managing Director and CEO KBS Anand said here on Friday.
According to reports, Asian Paints was trying to build a 600,000 KL per year capacity decorative paints in Karnataka near Mysuru, but land acquisition of 130 acres, needed for the project, ran into trouble since 2013.
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Anand said, he believed in actual possession of land and till then agreements and assurances made no meaning.
Asian Paints has two plants near Hyderabad and Chennai.
He said the company was facing trouble in getting environmental clearance for expanding Hyderabad facility and the issue was discussed with the Indian Paints Association in a meeting here on Friday.
The paint major was also planning to enter Indonesia with 25,000 tonne per annum capacity.
"We just got approval for the project to form the company and now we will have to acquire land and then environmental approvals," Anand said when asked when he was expecting Indonesian plant would be operational.
Asian Paints was not considering any plant immediately in eastern India because of being a small market and also for land and power issues.
The company indicated that there was no immediate plans to cut paint prices due to easing of crude price.