Dwarikesh Sugar invests Rs 500 cr on expansion

Bijnore (Uttar Pradesh), Dec 21: Dwarikesh Sugar Industries Ltd (DSIL) has embarked on a planned investment of more than Rs 500 crore for setting up of a new Greenfield integrated sugar plant at Dwarikesh Dham in Bareilly and capacity expansion in two of its existing units in Dwarikesh Nagar and Dwarikesh Puram here.

The investment, to be completed over a period of two years, will include setting up of a new sugar unit at Dwarikesh Dham with co-generation plant and proposed setting up of a distillery, enhancement of co-generation units at its two other existing plants, Mr G P Morarka, CMD, DSIL told reporters at a plant visit here.

The expansion process will be completed before October 2008 to gain advantage from Uttar Pradesh government's extended deadline for its Sugar Industry Incentive Scheme, 2004, he added.

The state government had recently extended the eligibility date of the Scheme to March 31, 2008 from the earlier date of March 31, 2007.

''With the eligibility of the state government's incentive scheme the company is expected to gain approximately Rs 100-125 per quintal (Rs 1,000-1,250 per tonne). In turn, the overall cost of production too would be less accordingly,'' Mr Morarka informed.

DSIL, a BSE and NSE listed company, derives its income from manufacture and sale of sugar, industrial alcohol, generation and distribution of power. It has three divisions such as sugar, power co-generation, and distillery (for industrial alcohol and ethanol production). It also sells its by-products.

Mr Morarka said ''we are looking towards opportunity to acquire at least one sugar plant in the next year as the talks are going with at least three companies within the state and one in Maharashtra.'' DSIL Chief further said the company has also applied for acquiring about 1000-acre land in the state to set up a Cane Development Institute to help the farmers of the area in getting them better seeds and methods to have higher yields from their crops.

The company, presently, has two units with total cane crushing capacity of 14,000 TCD (tonnes crushed per day) and co-generation capacity of 26 MW. Besides, it has also installed a 30,000 litre per day (KLPD) distillery for manufacture of ethanol, which has been operational since February, 2005.

UNI