Gujarat Ambuja Cements has planned to set up three captive power plants of aggregate capacity of 75 MW, with a view to saving on energy costs. These thermal plants, to come up at Punjab, Gujarat and West Bengal, would collectively cost Rs.225 crore. Commissioning is expected over the next 15 months.

The Punjab and Gujarat units would have a captive plant of 30 MW each, while a 15 MW plant is proposed for Ambuja Cement Eastern, a group company.

These captive plants are expected to save over Rs.100 crore on energy expenditure. The Punjab unit runs on grid power while the Gujarat unit has diesel generating sets for power supply.

Meanwhile, the merger of Ambuja Cement Rajasthan (ACRL) with GACL is expected to be completed shortly. Post merger, the Ambuja Group capacity would rise from 13.5 million tpa to 15 million tonne.

For 2004-05, GACL has set a production target of around 14.5 million tonnes.