Rana Sugar to open 2 units

Amritsar-based Rana Sugars Ltd is coming up with two sugar units in Uttar Pradesh, each having the capacity to crush 5,000 tonnes of sugarcane per day and facilities for the co-generation of 20 Mw of power, with an initial investment of around Rs 410 crore.

Later, the capacities will be upgraded to 10,000 tonnes of sugarcane per day and a distillery will come up unit with an 85 kilolitre per day capacity. The two sugar unit will be located in the Moradabad and Rampur districts.

Talking to Business Standard, Rana Sugars Director Rana Veer Pratap Singh said, "The Moradabad unit is likely to be operational from October 15. About 50 per cent of the civil work has been completed and the machinery for the plant has been received. The Rampur unit will start production from November 15. For power generation, we are importing 27 Mw turbines from Germany for each unit. The units will be greenfield projects"

"Within four years of operation of these units, we have plans to enhance the crushing capacity of each unit to 10,000 tonnes of sugarcane per day. And further, we have plans also to set up a distillery unit with an 85 kilolitre per day capacity by December next year," he added.

Commenting on the area for selection of setting up the units, he added, "We have chosen UP because of the incentives offered by the state government. Since it is a cane belt, we can easily access raw material. As per the new sugar policy of the UP government, an incentive of about Rs 280 per bag (1 bag contains 100 kg) of sugar is given for a period of five years to sugar mills investing more than Rs 350 crore. These incentives include transport subsidy on cane and sugar, capital subsidy on investment, reimbursement of the state cess on sugar etc," he said, reimbursement of administrative charges on molasses, and remission of entry tax on cane. However, the company has taken only Rs 200 per bag as incentive. These incentives will considerably add to profitability of the company."

He said, "Once these two units are operational they would add another Rs 200 crore to the group turnover."

Besides, the sugar industry, the group has diversified interests in textiles, informatics and infrastructure. In this financial year, the group is expecting Rs 300 crore as turnover.

Also, recently, they have set up a distillery unit with a 65 kilolitre per day capacity at Patti, Amritsar, with an initial investment of around Rs 39 crore and have the infrastructure for captive power generation of 1.6 Mw.