Visaka Industries has drawn up an expansion plan entailing an investment of Rs.50 crore.

The company is setting up a Rs.18 crore asbestos cement sheet unit at Tumkur near Bangalore in Karnataka, and is expanding the capacity of its spinning mill at Nagpur in Maharashtra by 60,000 spindles. The textile project would involve an investment of Rs.32 crore, and would take the company's overall textile capacity to 3,00,000 spindles.

Commercial production at the expanded Nagpur unit would commence by 1 October 2004. Civil construction work at the Bangalore asbestos plant would commence by February 2004 while commissioning is targeted for September 2004.

The company is likely to benefit from concessional interest rate under the Technology Upgradation Fund for its textile project. For its asbestos project, the company would stand to gain from the overall reduction in customs duty announced in January 2004.

(Original news date: 24 October 2003, Retrospective update: 20 January 2004)