Centre's printing press to be upgraded at Rs 338 cr, to increase productivity by 177%

The Centre's printing press at Minto Road in New Delhi will be upgraded at a cost of Rs 338 crore, the government said on Monday.

"The present building of the press will be redeveloped at a cost of Rs 238.56 crore into three blocks of ground plus six floors suitable to locate the modern technology and equipment to be installed at a cost of Rs 100 crore," an official release said.

Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has accepted the recommendation of the Standing Finance Committee in this regard, it added. At present, the machines and equipment being used are of 1980-2005 vintage and some of them installed as early as in 1968.

This has resulted in high cost of production. The demand for printing were also not being met in time and there was also non-availability of spare parts. With the initiative, the production capacity of the Printing Press will increase from the present 16 lakh pages per day (60 crore pages per year) of A-5 size to 45 lakh pages per day (164.96 cr pages per year), an increase of 177%.

Multi-colour printing, which is not available presently, will also be made available. The Printing Press meets all printing needs of both the Houses of Parliament and various Ministries and Departments of central government, among others.

The entire redevelopment and modernisation work would be completed in 52 months from now.