Saint-Gobain Glass India's expansion project is likely to be complete by December 2005, ahead of the earlier deadline of June 2006.

The expansion project  costing Rs.830 crore involves the expansion of float glass capacity from the current 650 tpd to 1500 tpd.

Meanwhile, a production line to make automotive laminated glass will be commissioned in the first week of May 2005. The company is also investing in a production line for toughened automotive glass. The unit will have capacity of 1 million sets per year. Phase I of the project will begin production by December 2005, and the second, by June 2006.

Increasing the captive power plant capacity from 6 MW to 14 MW also forms part of the project.

The investment now envisaged is much higher than the Rs.500 crore committed to the Tamil Nadu government in October 2003. [Click here for details.]

With this, the total investment of Saint-Gobain Glass India in its plant is located at Sriperumbudur near Chennai would cross Rs.1,400 crore.