JK Lakshmi to invest Rs 400 Cr for capacity expansion

Chandigarh, June 22 (UNI) J K Lakshmi Cement Ltd plans to invest an additional Rs 400 cr to expand its cement manufacturing capacity from the existing 3.4 million Metric Tonnes MT to about five million MT per annum.

Launching a state-of-the-art Ready Mix Concrete (RMS) plant in Mohali near here, J K Lakshmi Cement Director Shailendra Chouksey said, ''JKLC has already started the work on the projects for further expanding its cement manufacturing capacity from the existing 3.4 million MT to about five million MT.'' ''The aforesaid capacity enhancement is expected to be completed by October 2008 along with augmenting its power generating capacity to meet increased requirement,'' he added.

While announcing the RMC plant in Punjab, Mr Chouksey said, ''The concept of using concrete at the site by conventional means is gradually giving way to the more modern practice of using Ready Mix Concrete (RMC). In the developed economies the site mix concrete now hardly constitute 20 per cent of the total concrete use and the rest is in the form of RMC.'' The computerised controlled pan mixing technique and state of the art computerised batching plant provides consistent quality and ensures homogeneous high grade concrete mix production as per European standard.'' Disclosing the company's business plan, Mr Chouksey said in order to meet the growing requirement of quality concrete, JKL was planning to add at least 15 to 20 plants with large investments to its already operating five RMC plants.

Of these, at least five- six would be added during the current financial year itself, Mr Chouksey added.

The RMC industry was rapidly growing with a rate of 25-30 per cent annually whereas five-six years ago it was non-existent in India. As per the industry estimates, currently about 6.5 per cent of the total cement consumed was in the form of RMC and this percentage was expected to go upto 11-12 per cent by the year 2010, he said.

UNI