Union Minister inaugurates WAPRACS of HNL

Kottayam, Oct 29: Union Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Santosh Mohan Dev today inaugurated the Waste Paper Recovery And Collection Scheme (WAPRACS) of the Hindustan Newsprint Limited (HNL) here today.

Under the scheme a 200 tonne per day De-inking Plant would be installed.

It is part of the Rs 718 crore Expansion-cum-Diversification Project (EDP) launched by the minister at Newsprint Nagar yesterday.

The project would be completed by November 2008.

To attain a decisive competitive edge in the domestic industry, the HNL had launched the EDP for increasing its capacity to 2,80,000 MT per annum from the present installed capacity of 1,00,000 MT while diversifying the product range from newsprint to premium grades of writing and printing paper.

A 200 tonne per day De-inking plant partly meeting its raw material requirement and 25 MW Captive Power Plant providing self-sufficiency in the power front were also under the EDP.

De-inking is the process by which the ink was removed from printed waste paper to produce pulp. The waste paper was first pulped with the addition specific chemicals. Printed ink, foreign matter and other impurities were removed in subsequent stages to produce pulp of suitable quality.

A cross-section of the local people, particularly those below the poverty line is the beneficiaries of the scheme. About 140 tonne per day of waste paper was required for the existing DIP whereas the additional requirements would be about 280 tonnes per day for the new De-inking plant.

Currently HNL is getting waste paper mainly through local traders. However on an average, availability of indigenous waste paper wass less than 70 tonnes per day. This compelled HNL to depend on imported waste paper to meet the shortfall.

The demand supply gap would be huge once the new plant is also made operational. The company was planning to maximise the procurement of waste paper from local resources. Efforts were initiated to highlight the immense potential for gainful employment in the informal sector by way of recovery, collection, storage and transportation of waste paper, Chairman Raji Philip said.

UNI