ITC's MP project may take off in May

Meetings have been arranged with ministers and officials on May 9 and 10

ITC's social and farm forestry project, developed by its Bhadrachalam-based paperboards and specialty papers division (PSPD), will start exploring the possibility of replicating its social forestry model in Madhya Pradesh to set up a greenfield plant.

An ITC team is arriving in May to initiate dialogue with the state government. The company is the first one to talk to the government after the new forest policy was announced recently. The state has declared its first forest policy after 1952.

According to sources in the state secretariat, "ITC Chairman Y C Deveshwar has asked officials at ITC Bhadrachalam to initiate talks with the state government to see the possibility of setting up a greenfield pulp and paper mill in Madhya Pradesh. They have requested the state government officials to arrange meetings with the commerce and industry minister, forest minister, and senior government officials, including officials of the department of forests, on May 9 and 10."

Following a recent Business Standard report titled "MP forest policy may attract ITC," the MP State Industrial Development Corporation has been pursuing ITC's paper and paperboard division on investment in the state.

A draft of the forest policy had been sent to ITC Bhadrachalam officials by the MP State Industrial Development Corporation. The policy is yet to be made public.

However, certain glitches remain. Only the department of industries is aware of the development. "I do not have any idea if ITC is interested in social forestry," Principal Chief Forest Conservator Muhammad Rasheed told Business Standard.

A similar reply came from Forest Minister Chaudhary Chandrabhan Singh, who, however, said he was interested in talking to the company.

The investment in the plant may go up to Rs 2,500 crore and it will have annually 2 lakh tonnes of integrated elemental chlorine-free paper and raw material, to be supplied in the form of backward fibre linkages, through social and farm forestry.

ITC's paper and paperboard department is fast emerging as a carbon-positive organisation that provides sustenance to tribal farmers in the vicinity of the village of Sarapaka, near the integrated paper mill.

The company has bought some 30,000 hectares (one hectare is about 2.5 acres; one acre is 4,840 square yards) of plantations of subabul, eucalyptus and casuarinas in the area, and thus has created an asset value of nearly Rs 600 crore.