In a major fire broke out today at a plant of Dhunseri Petro Chem and Tea Ltd in Haldia, the company is feared to have suffered a damage of around Rs 70 to Rs 75 crore.
C K Dhanuka, Chairman of the company, told the media that a raw material godown in Haldia plant caught fire at around 2 PM today.
The production at the facility, which is one of the largest manufacturers of PET resins, has been immediately stopped. Dhanuka said the extent of the damage was around Rs 70 to Rs 75 crore. “Everything is, however, insured.”
Dhunseri Petrochem is the flagship company of the Dhunseri group. It was formed with the merger of two manufacturing companies of Dhunseri group – Dhunseri Tea and Industries Ltd which was engaged in tea production and IT infrastructure and South Asian Petrochem Ltd (SAPL) which was into manufacturing of PET resin.
“All our officals have rushed to Haldia. The situation there is currently under control. Fire tenders have been sent to the plant site to fight the blaze,” a company official said. At present, capacity of the Haldia plant is 2,00,000 tonnes.
The fire might add to the woes of the plant which is already under pressure due to the unavailability of raw materials. The production of petrochem division under the erstwhile SAPL had reportedly decreased from 1,92,655 tonnes in 2008-09 to 1,68,180 tonnes in 2009-10.