Rajshree's Bihar plans in final stages

Coimbatore"�based sugar major Rajshree Sugars and Chemicals Limited (RSCL) is giving final touches to its expansion plans for setting up two integrated sugar complexes in Bihar.

After seeking the approval from its shareholders at its EGM on June 9, the company will consider raising funds through GDRs (global depository receipts) for funding the expansion plan.

Also, the company has plans to borrow up to Rs 600 crore for its expansion activities and business operations for the next two years.

According to sources, RSCL is setting up two integrated sugar complexes in Bihar in East Champaran (Rs 242 crore) and Madhubani (Rs 238 crore), at a total investment of Rs 480 crore. The company will soon file a detailed project report (DPR) for another project in Muzaffarpur district.

This apart, RSCL has also applied for the revival of three state-owned mills in Bihar at Madhubani, Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur. Rajshree's proposed mills not only will produce sugar but will also help tide over part of the power crisis in the state.

The first two sugar mills are expected to have a minimum crushing capacity of 5,000 tonnes crushed per day (TCD) each with their co-generation units producing 30 mega watt (mw) power each. They will also have a distillery to produce ethanol, the capacity of which is yet to be decided.

RSCL's plants at Theni and Mundiampakkam in Tamil Nadu have a combined capacity of over 7,500 TCD. These factories handle nearly 2 million tonnes of sugarcane in a sugar season, producing around two lakh tonnes of sugar. With its recent acquisition of Andhra Pradesh-based Trident, a 2,500-TCD mill, the company plans to crush more in the current sugar year (October 2005 - September 2006).

RSCL, which is bullish on the carbon trading front, has its co-generation unit at Mundiampakkam registered under the clean development mechanism (CDM) project activity with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). With this, the company is entitled to sell 80,157 certified emission reductions (CERs) in a year.

The company's plan to set up a 12-Mw co-generation plant in the recently-acquired Trident unit would also be eligible for carbon credit by the end of September 2006.

The distillery unit has a capacity of 45 KLPD (kilo liters per day) and this will enable the company to produce 12 million litres of alcohol per year. The plant is into producing rectified spirit, extra neutral alcohol (ENA) and fuel grade anhydrous alcohol (AA) - popularly known as ethanol or fuel alcohol.