Gujarat NRE Coke is hopeful that operations of its greenfield coke plant at Nellore in Andhra Pradesh will commence within a year.
The company has decided to set up a 1.5 million tonne per annum plant near Krishnapatnam port for meeting the requirements of southern and eastern parts of the country.
Land acquisition for the plant has been completed and the company completed the public hearing in respect of environmental clearances required for the project, according to Senior Executive Sutirtha Roy.
Investment
Mr. Roy said the plant was aimed at processing coking coal and raw material for metallurgical coke. It was planned to invest close to Rs.900 crore in the project, which would comprise washery required for value addition of met coke. The company was expanding its met coke capacity from 1.43 million tonnes to 4 million tonnes annually by 2015. Gujarat NRE, he said, was the only merchant coke producer in the country with adjacent coal washeries with an installed capacity of 2.4 million tonnes.
The company owned and operated two coking coal mines with estimated reserves of over 650 million tonne in Australia.
