Bajaj Hind lines up plan for Rs 240 cr investment

Bajaj Hindusthan is planning to spend Rs 240 crore to expand its capacity for industrial alcohol production (distillery).

The plan is to expand the projection capacity to 800 kilo litres (KL) per day by 2006-07 and set-up three new distilleries with an aggregate capacity of 480 KL per day. The sugar major is targeting 320 KL production per day this year.

Bajaj Hindusthan Chief Executive Kushagra Nayan Bajaj said: "The 160 KL per day project is under implementation. If the Indian government allows mixing 5 per cent ethanol with petrol, the ethanol consumption will go up. The new norm may come into effect in April 2006."

The company is looking to achieve an overall capacity of 100,000 tonne sugar cane crushing per day (TCD) by 2006-07 through aggressive capital investment, capacity expansion and acquisition.

The capital expenditure for 2005-06 and 2006-07 for sugar cane crushing will be Rs 330 crore and Rs 21 crore, respectively. The annual sugar production capacity of the company is now around 1 million tonne.

"Pratappur Sugar and Industries, which teh company acquired in August 2005, has started operation in the current crushing season, along with three new greenfield sugar plants at Bilai, Thanabhavan, Budhana. They are all located in the cane-rich areas of west Uttar Pradesh. Construction of three new plants at Sahranpur, Pilibhit and Lakhimpur is progressing and they expect to start the crushing in October 2006m," Bajaj said.