Mohan Padmanabhan

Kolkata , May 12

THE final location of the proposed Rs 2,500-crore greenfield integrated pulp and paper project of ITC Ltd has not yet been decided.

It could be either in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat or Andhra Pradesh, where two of ITC's paperboard units are located. Detailed discussions are now on with all three State governments, essentially on the key backward linkages required for paper-making such as water and fibre source. The feasibility report and in-principle board clearance have been received for the project.

Mr Pradeep Dhobale, CEO of the Paperboards & Specialty Papers Division (PSPD) of the company, told Business Line, that it may take at least three more months to arrive at some decision, after which detailed engineering work would be taken up.

The proposed two-lakh tonne integrated pulp and paper mill, which isto be completed within three years from zero date, would put the company among the front-runners in the paper industry on rated capacity. Mr Dhobale said the company was already number one in paperboards, and "on completion of our new venture, we may be neck-and-neck with the number one player in the market in terms of declared capacity." ITC's Bhadrachalam unit, with five lines of production, and an ECF fibre line, has a capacity of three lakh tonnes.

Mr Dhobale said while Jakko Poyrry of Finland was very much on the cards as a key paper consultant, others such as Tata Consulting or SPB are also being considered. He also clarified that the successful social forestry programme of the company at Bhadrachalam, based on the triple bottomline concept adopted by ITC, would be replicated at the new site. The location-specific backward linkages for our ECF fibre line is a constant factor, and the feasibility of the new venture has been woven around this, he added.

He said the proposed new mill writing and printing paper would also be employing contemporary technologies, just as at the Bhadrachalam unit, whose portfolio of products have consistently moved up the value chain. Commenting on the new "Ecoviron" range introduced by PSPD for carton packaging, he added that many of the variants have been developed in-house, based on insights into the way the customers use the company's boards and the technology employed for this.

Mr Dhobale said the Ecoviron range of products, some five in number, play a key role in meeting customer requirements such as folding cartons of various shapes, types and closures, topliners for corrugated and microflutes, set up/display boxes, printing environment, finishing technologies, filling machine parameters, health and safety regulations.

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