Fal-G brick industry may see Rs 100-crore investments

Visakhapatnam-based Institute for Solid Waste Research and Ecological Balance (INSWAREB) is expecting more than Rs 100 crore investments in the fal-G brick industry in the country during the next fiscal.

"During 2005-06, only 200 new units went into operation. With foreign institutions offering carbon credit incentives, we expect about 1,000 new units in the next fiscal. These units would invest close to Rs 100 crore," N Kalidas, director of INSWAREB and president, Fly Ash Building Manufacturers' Association, told Business Standard. Of the expected new units, about 30 per cent will come up in Andhra Pradesh alone.

According to Kalidas, the World Bank, Japan Carbon Finance Limited and Germany-based KFW have agreed to offer carbon credit incentives of over $12 million in the 2006-07 fiscal. To take advantage of these incentives, quite a few players are gearing up to start new fal-G brick units in the next fiscal.

"About 600 new units would get around Rs 1.6 lakh each as incentive during the next fiscal under the carbon credit incentive scheme," he added.

"Apart from the carbon credit incentive scheme, the fal-G brick industry is now getting good margins with less investment," he said.

Currently, about 2,000 small and tiny fal-G bricks and blocks manufacturing units are operational in the country, of which about 900 are located in Andhra Pradesh.

Each fal-G brick unit produces, on an average, 3 million bricks a year and during the last fiscal, these units produced about Rs 600 crore worth of fal-G bricks.