The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs is likely to clear Hindustan Newsprint's expansion programme in the first week of March 2006. Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, is scheduled to flag off the project in March 2006, it is learnt.

HNL has planned to invest Rs.700 crore in doubling the newsprint manufacturing at its Kerala unit to 2 lakh tpa. A diversification into manufacture of special grade paper is also being planned. Jaako Poyry of Finland has been engaged for the detailed feasibility report of the project.

The project also includes capacity expansion at the writing paper mills at Assam. HNL has two such units -- at Naogaon and Cachar -- each with a current installed capacity of 1 lakh tpa. The total capacity at the two mills is likely to be raised to 3 lakh tpa.

HNL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Central PSU, Hindustan Paper Corporation.

Also See:

Capacity expansion plan of HNL (06-Mar-05)