BackITC to invest `8,000 cr in Telangana
It will build a food processing park, a new hotel and double the capacity of its Bhadrachalam paperboard factory
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Hyderabad: ITC Ltd has committed to investing ₹ 8,000 crore in Telangana, the country’s youngest state. It will build a food processing park, a new hotel and double the capacity of its Bhadrachalam paperboard factory, giving a boost to the state’s newly introduced industrial policy.
The country’s largest maker of paperboards and speciality papers will invest half of the promised amount, or ₹ 4,000 crore, to take the total capacity of its plant in Bhadrachalam to 1 million tonnes annually, ITC chairman Y.C. Deveshwar said.
The company operates the country’s biggest integrated pulping and paperboard factory at Bhadrachalam in Khammam district of Telangana. The unit currently produces 500,000 tonnes of fine printing paper and high-end virgin and recycled boards annually.
But this pales in comparison to Chinese firms that are now deploying machines that by themselves can manufacture 1 million tonnes of paperboard annually, Deveshwar pointed out.
Doubling of the paperboard factory’s capacity will also lead to 180 million man-days of employment, Deveshwar added. Paperboards are used in packaging and graphic applications, according to the company’s website.
ITC will also build a food processing park at a cost of ₹ 800 crore.
“The faster you give us approvals, the faster we will deliver to you a world-class food processing industry," Deveshwar told Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao on Friday.
Rao, who was unveiling his government’s industrial policy before investors, responded, saying approvals will be given within 12 days of ITC submitting its proposal.
The food processing unit will come up at Tupran in Medak district, about 50km from Hyderabad.
The company already operates a warehouse at the location, said Arvind Kumar, Telangana industries secretary.
The company, which had a cash balance of ₹ 7,896 crore at the end of the last fiscal, will spend ₹ 1,000 crore to build a second hotel in Hyderabad.
The hotel will come up in the heart of the information technology hub of Hyderabad, Deveshwar said.
The firm runs ITC Kakatiya, a five-star property located at Begumpet in Hyderabad.
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