Hind Paper to put Rs 500 cr in Nagaland

Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd (HPC), the public sector paper outfit, is planning to invest Rs 500 crore to revive the closed Nagaland Pulp and Paper Corporation (NPPC) at Mokokchung in Nagaland.

NPPC is a joint venture between HPC and the Nagaland government.

After the revival Nagaland government would hold around five per cent stake in the outfit.

HPC is hoping that it would get the cabinet nod for the revival of NPPC by September this year.

The paper mill was shut down 14 years ago.

Terming it as one of the biggest investment in the North-east by a public sector entity, the chairman and managing director of HPC, Raji Philip, said HPC had submitted the detailed proposal to public investment board for the revival.

"We expect green signal in this regard by the end of September. This will be almost a greenfield project except the land acquisition part," he said.

According to Philip, HPC was planning to start up with a capacity of 200 ton per day of writing and printing paper at NPPC.

The mill earlier had a capacity of 100 ton per day.

Commenting on the restructuring of NPPC, Philip said that the entire management structure of the outfit would be changed.

"It will have wholetime managing director and HPC chairman will be the chairman of NPPC too. Earlier, the NPPC chairman used to be nominated by the Nagaland government," he added.

The head of marketing of HPC, A Mannan, said the Union government was expected to infuse Rs 226 crore as equity in the ailing subsidiary of HPC.

Besides the equity, the revival package would include a debt component of close to Rs 300 crore.

"First we shall set off the accumulated losses of NPPC against the existing capital and then we shall infuse the fresh capital," he added.

NPPC currently had accumulated losses of Rs 110 crore and paid-up equity of Rs 112 crore.