Bharathi Cement, the fully owned domestic unit of the French cement firm Vicat Group, said that it is eyeing to double the turnover to INR 2,000 crore by 2013 when its plant at Gulbarga in Karnataka will go on stream and double the capacity by 2016 to 10.5 million tonne.

Mr M Ravinder Reddy MD of Bharathi Cement told reporters that "Our turnover from the existing two plants at Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh in 2011 is expected to be over INR 1,000 crore. We are targeting INR 2,000 crore turnover after the completion of our INR 1,400 crore plant at Gulbarga in Karnataka.”

He said that the upcoming two units at Gulbarga will have a combined capacity of 5.5 million tonne and the line of 2.75 million tonne will be operational by the second half of 2012.

He added that "In 2012, we expect to ramp up the capacity to 7.5 million tonne and reach 10.5 million tonne by 2015-16 from the present 5 million tonne.”

Bharathi has lined up INR 1,400 crore investment for the Gulbarga unit, he said, while the Andhra plants cost it INR 1,450 crore.

Mr Reddy added that "The investment for the Andhra plants was met through equity, whereas we are getting finance for the Karnataka plant from IFC. We will also erect a 30 MW captive power plant for unit one and will double it to 60 MW for the second unit.”

(Sourced from ET)