Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd. (TNPL) has embarked on a ₹2,520-crore, two-phased expansion programme at its Tiruchirapalli plant, said a top official.
“TNPL has embarked on a mill expansion plan in its second unit to produce 1.65 lakh tonnes of paper per annum. The company will also set up a hardwood pulp mill with chemical recovery boiler, captive power plant and a waste-water treatment plant,” said N. Muruganandam, chairman, while addressing the shareholders.
“The first phase, involving the setting up of a hardwood pulp mill, captive power plant and waste water treatment, will be completed by January 2021. The second phase for making paper will be ready by 2023. After expansion, the overall paper and packaging board production capacity will increase to 7.65 lakh tonnes per annum from the existing 6 lakh tonnes per annum,” said S. Sivashanmugaraja, managing director, TNPL.
He said TNPL would have capacity to produce 400 tonnes per day of hardwood pulp, which was scalable to 500 tonnes per day. The mill would come with a 50 MW captive power plant.
“The project cost will be met through a mix of debt and equity. We will borrow ₹880 crore from banks and the rest will be funded by internal accruals,” said Mr. Sivashanmugaraja.
Regarding the ban on single-use plastic bags, Mr. Muruganandam said the food delivery applications had started using packaging paper board for delivery. This would lead to higher demand for these grades of paper.
