JK Cements make foray into South India

Mudhol, Karnataka, Dec 8 (UNI) Leading cement manufacturer JK Cement Ltd today marked its foray into South India by performing the ground breaking ceremony for its 3.5 million tonnes capacity greenfield cement plant at Muddapur village, near here, in Bagalkot district of Karnataka.

With its entry into South India, the company, which produced four million tonnes of grey cement from its two plants in Nimbahera and Mangrol in Rajasthan, thus became a national player.

The Rs 950-crore Mudhol plant would cater to markets mainly in Maharashtra and Karnataka, apart from Andhra Pradesh and parts of Kerala. It would produce products like portland, fly ash and slab cement. The company would also build a Rs 120 crore split grinding plant in Bellary to utilise the abundant fly ash in that belt. The two plants would be ready by October, 2008.

Briefing newspersons after the ceremony, company Managing Director and CEO Yadupati Singhania said that with a buoyant economy and rapid rise in construction activity in South India, JK Cements had decided to enter South India.

''This plant would provide employment to more than 1,500 people and most of them will be locals. It would also provide livelihood to almost 10,000 other people indirectly like distributors, transporters and suppliers,'' he said, adding that the company would invest about Rs 400 crore in the plant from internal accruals and the rest would be borrowed from banks.

Company President (Works) D Ravishankar said the Karnataka Government had allotted 250 acres of land for the plant and the residential township and the process of acquiring 707 acres of mine area was on. In the earmarked mine area, the company would have access to 90 million tonnes of high grade lime stone which would be exploited in a time span of 30 years, he added.

JK Cement, which had about 15 per cent market share of grey cement in North India, was also the second biggest white cement producer in the country, producing 0.40 million tonnes from its Gotan plant in Rajasthan.

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