By IANS,
Agartala : The biggest gas-based steel plant in northeast India started commercial production in Tripura Friday.
The Noida-based Dharampal Premchand Ltd (DPL), manufacturers of the “Baba” brand of tobacco products, has diversified into steel production to set up the Rs.250-crore steel plant at Bodhjungnagar, 12 km north of Tripura’s capital Agartala.
“The plant will generate employment for some 1,300 people,” R.K. Kakrania, director of DPL, told reporters. The project would also help tap the unexplored business potential of the northeastern region and adjacent countries, he added.
Spread over 24 acres, the plant will manufacture cold rolled sheets, galvanised corrugated and plain sheets and cold rolled closed annealed sheets needed by the automobile industry and for making cupboards, panels, grain storage bins and silos and barrels.
“DPL has grown into a Rs.250-crore company after a modest beginning in 1929,” Kakrania said.
State-owned upstream oil major Oil and Natural Gas Corp is supplying gas to the steel plant.
Apart from steel, Kakrania said DPL has already commenced work to set up a ceramic tiles unit in Guwahati. The project is expected to start production by April 2010.