Ambuja Cements to invest Rs 1,600 cr in captive power biz

    
ROPAR (Punjab): Leading cement producer Ambuja Cements plans to invest nearly Rs 1,600 crore in the captive power generation, which would have a capacity of 200 MW by 2010.
    
"We plan 200 MW electricity generation capacity from our captive power plants in three years time," a company official said here on a site visit.
    
"We hope to have captive power plants attached to all our manufacturing units across the country," he added.     

Ambuja Cements has 11 cement plants, out of which four units have captive power plants (CCPs) attached to them, including the one at Ropar in Punjab.
    
The multi biomass co-fired captive power plant of Ambuja cement at Ropar has developed a technology to operate on coal and a wide variety of biomass that reduces carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) significantly.
    
The 30 MW captive power plant at Ropar which was commissioned in 2004 uses agricultural waste for power generation.
    
The power plant can operate 100 per cent on biomass and can produce 30 MW of power which completely fulfills the total electricity needs of the cement plant.
    
During the first eight months of this calendar year, Ambuja Cements production went up by 5.3 per cent at 118.25 lakh tonnes from 112.25 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period of 2007.