Dunlop India Ltd to set up 10 MW captive power plant at Shahgunj

Kolkata, Aug 19(UNI) Tyre major Dunlop India Ltd plans to set up a ten-MW captive power plant at its manufacturing unit at Shahgunj in West Bengal, company Chairman Pawan Kumar Ruia today said.

"We are planning to set up a ten- MW power plant at the Shahgunj factory site at an estimated investment of Rs 50 crore in the next one-and-a-half year," he told the company's annual general meeting.

Mr Ruia said the proposed captive power plant would help reduce the company's production cost which, at present, includes an annual expenditure between Rs 8.5 and 9.5 crore for purchasing power.

The company has recently started a six- MW captive power plant at the Falcon Tyres manufacturing site. With the present captive power need being around 3.5 MW, the company plans to sell the surplus power, he said.

Dunlop is also set to re-start its aero tyre division, which has been closed for almost a decade, with technnolgical support from a UK-based company.

"The entire thing is ready and a technological tie-up is in the offing. One or two issues, pertaining to marketing arrangement, are yet to be sorted out, and we are working on that," the Chairman said.

Dunlop, which was under the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), came out of the sick status last fiscal and made a net profit of Rs 4.85 crore in 2007-08.

"This fiscal we are targeting a turnover of Rs 500 crore as against last year's Rs 120 crore," Mr Ruia said.

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