The plant is being set up at nearby Udyogamandal at FACT.
The technology for building the panels would be provided by the Australian company, Rapid Building Systems (RBS).
Union Minister of Fertilisers and Chemicals, Ram Vilas Paswan, today laid the foundation stone of the unit here by unveiling a plaque.
The demonstration building using gypsum load bearing panels was inaugurated by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan.Paswan said the 'Rapid House' built with gypsum has the advantage of using minimum cement and virtually no sand.
The construction cost can be reduced by 30 per cent than the conventional houses.The new technology would be a boon to the real estate sector which has been hit hard by the rise in prices of steel and cement, Achuthanandan said.
FACT had made an operating profit this year of rs 45 crore and a net profit of Rs five crore. Though this was not a figure to be excited about, this achievement was laudable as after several years, the oldest PSU in the country had registered a profit, he said.
FACT has a huge stock of waste Gypsum of about 60 lakh Mt at its production units at Udyogamandal and Ambalamedu. The company has been able to convert a portion of this waste by entering into MOU with cement companies for bulk sales and launching gypsum bags for use as soil conditioner in the alkaline soils of South India.
T K A Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, said efforts are being made to ensure that LNG project at Kochi is completed on time. The change of feedstock of FACT from naphtha to gas was dependent on the LNG project, he said.
FACT is planning to achieve a sales of 50,000 Mt gypsum per month, its Chairman and Managing Director George Sleeba said.
Fertiliser secretary, J S Sarma, was among those who spoke.
Using Rapid House panels makes construction much faster as they can be build in almost half the time. Though light weight, these panels have enormous load bearing capacity and are disaster resistant and nature friendly.
An exchange of MOU between FACT CMD, Goerge Sleeba and Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) CMD N K Chaubey for setting up Container Freight station facility at Udyogamandal here jointly with FACT was also held. The project requires about 50 acre of land and an investment of Rs 100 crore
