Ailing Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL), which has commenced pre-start-up activity after a seven-month closure, would not operate at sub-optimal levels of capacity utilisation in future, a source in TCG said.

“We do not want to run the mother plant at sub-optimal levels of capacity and lose money every day. The plant will operate at optimal levels of capacity”, the source told PTI.

Initially, the plant management had started the captive power plant followed by commencement of trial run of the mother (naphtha cracker) plant, closed since July 2014.

HPL is a naphtha-based petrochemical complex located about 125 km from here at Haldia.

At the time of closure, the plant was running at less than 50 per cent capacity after which the plant developed a technical snag leading to the prolonged closure coupled with the problem of lack of working capital to procure feedstock naphtha.

The plant was having a capacity of 124 kilo tonnes per day.

The source said since the plant was under closure for seven months, thorough testing of the systems would be done on a daily basis to determine the quality of products which were being produced.

“The products will have to be of marketable quality when the production starts”, he said.

With naphtha prices falling substantially, this would be right time to revive the fortunes of the company, he said.

TCG, one of the promoters of HPL, had agreed to buy out the West Bengal Government’s stake in the company (held through WBIDC) at Rs 1,300 crore payable in two tranches.

While the payment deadline for the first tranche expired on December 31, 2014, TCG had sought an extension from WBIDC.

Asked whether it had been granted, the source said: “This has not happened as certain conditions have not been met and WBIDC is yet to make an exit from the company.’’

Talks were also on with the lenders for extension of finance, he said.

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