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Balrampur Chini to invest $12.34 million in 2001-02

India's largest sugar company Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd said on Wednesday it would spend Rs 580 million to set up a power plant and expand capacity at another plant.

"We will spend Rs 500 million for an 18-MW bagasse-based power plant which we hope to commission by October next year," chief financial officer Kishor Shah told Reuters,.

The plant would be located in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Shah said that Rs 80 million would be spent on capacity expansion at its distillery unit in Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh.

He said the means for funding the power project would be decided only after the company received the Uttar Pradesh government's approval. The money for raising capacity of the distillery unit would be generated internally, he added.

"We hope to raise the capacity of the distillery to 100 kl per day from the present 60 kl per day by January," he said. He said the move was driven by a need to utilise resources more effectively.

"We have a 10,000 TCD (daily tonnage crushing capacity) molasses capacity and we want to put that to best use."

He said the company would keenly watch the outcome of the summit meeting in July between Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

Balrampur exported 200,000 tonnes of sugar to Pakistan in 2000-2001 (Apr-March) which helped it double its net profit in the year to end March from a year ago, Shah said.

"We hope Pakistan will lift the ban on sugar imports from India after the top-level talks next month."

Pakistan, which is locked in a bitter dispute with India over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, slapped a ban on sugar imports from India on March 8.

Balrampur Chini's net profit for the year ended March soared 107 per cent to Rs 478.2 million.

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