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| The tiles unit, which was set up with an investment of Rs 20 lakh, did well initially, and Srikanth and his team expanded the capacity by setting up a slabs unit with an investment of Rs 50 lakh about a year back. Babu, who was a single truck operator, used to transport granite from the processing unit located at his native place Martur, which is 250 km away from Hyderabad, to the upcountry market.
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| He smelled an opportunity in the granite business and set up his own unit with an investment of slightly less than Rs 5 lakh. Many more Srikanths and Babus, most of them first-generation entrepreneurs with agriculture family backgrounds, joined the fray and set up units at various parts of the state.
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| The initial success soon saw the state mushrooming with several of such units. Today, there are over 700 small-scale granite processing units (both tiles and slabs) spread across Khammam, Prakasam, Srikakulam, Chittoor, Anantapur, Kurnool and Ranga Reddy districts, where granite quarries are located.
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| The investment involved in these units varies from as low as Rs 4 lakh to Rs 50 lakh, and is estimated to be an aggregate amount of Rs 250-300 crore. These units process black, galaxy, tan brown, blue and steel grey varieties of granite and the finished product price varies from Rs 70 to Rs 150 per sq ft depending on the colour, size and quality of the granite tile/slab.
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| About 30 containers of granite tiles and slabs (each container contains about 7,200 sq ft processed material) are exported, mainly to the Gulf, through merchant exporters. It accounts for 20 per cent of the production by small-scale units in the state. The remaining production is supplied to the New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Rajasthan markets.
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| The sales in the home state is less than 10 per cent. The housing boom, increased usage of granite for flooring, kitchen platforms, walls and elevation applications, and the availability of the material even in small towns have really expanded the market.
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Going by the statistics above, one would assume that these units are doing well. However, the mushrooming of units resulted in unhealthy competition turning the sector into a buyer
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