Dwarikesh sugar on expansion spree

BIJNOR (UP): Dwarikesh Sugar Industries Limited on Wednesday said it is planning to set up a distillery unit at Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh at an investment of Rs 35 crore, besides looking at an acquisition of a sugar plant in UP or Maharashtra.

We are looking to set up a distillery unit having a capacity of 60 kilo litres per day at Dwarikesh Dham in Bareilly, company's chairman and managing director G R Morarka told reporters here.

The company would take the final call on setting up the distillery unit by May 2007.

However, Morarka said, the decision about the distillery plant largely depends on how the government takes forward its ethanol blending programme.

The company hopes to supply over 2 million litres of ethanol by March next year at a cost of Rs 21.50 per litre from its existing plant.

Dwarikesh Sugar is presently undertaking a Rs 375 crore expansion plan, which includes setting up its third green field sugar unit having a cane crushing capacity of 7,500 tcd and a 36 mw power plant at Dwarikesh Dham.

The ongoing investment also includes expansion of a co-generation plant from 9 mw to 33 mw at Dwarikesh Puram.

On the acquisition of a sugar plant, Morarka said, we are having a dialogue with four companies for the last two-three years. However, he refused to divulge details of investment plans for acquisition.

Out of the four production units that Dwarikesh Sugar is eyeing, three are located in UP and one in Maharashtra.

The company presently has two sugar plants, one each at Dwarikesh Nagar and Dwarikesh Puram, having an aggregate capacity of 14,000 tcd and 26 mw power plant and 30 klp distillery.