Anant Raj Inds to set up ceramic unit in Gujarat

Anant Raj Industries Limited (ARIL), a Delhi-based diversified player having interests in ceramics, construction and real estate, plans to set up a tiles manufacturing unit in Jhagadia in south Gujarat.

The company would invest Rs 50-60 crore in the project, which would come up on over 25 acres in the industrial estate of Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), said Amit Sarin, director of ARIL.

He did not divulge details about the capacity of the upcoming plant.

Marketed and manufactured under the brand, Romano, the company's ceramic tiles business was declared a sick unit in November 1999 and referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR).

"Though our core business has since been construction and real estate after we moved into forward integration, we are now looking to expand our tiles business by moving it to Gujarat," Sarin said.

With the company restructuring its businesses, Anantraj Clay Products Ltd, which used to look after the tiles business was merged into ARIL recently.

The company is moving its tiles business to Gujarat following favourable conditions like availability of natural gas and raw materials, added Sarin.

Armed with a land bank of 1,100 acres in the National Capital Region (NCR), ARIL is in the process of building special economic zones (SEZs), IT parks, hotels, commercial complexes, malls and other infrastructure projects.

While most of its real estate development activity is concentrated in the NCR, the company is planning to take up IT and ITeS projects like parks and SEZs in Gujarat and Rajasthan.