Birla Corporation Ltd on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Assam Mineral Development Corporation, a state government undertaking, to set up a 1 million tonne greenfield cement plant in Assam. The flagship company of the M P Birla Group said in a statement that the project would cost Rs 450 crore.

The company will have 87.5 per cent equity in the new joint venture company and the balance 12.5 per cent would be allotted free of cost to the AMDC as per the tender conditions.

The project would enjoy the statutory incentives for setting up industry in the backward region in the North-East. BCL won for the project through open bidding from among 23 companies.

The company said it has a production capacity of more than 7 million tonne of cement currently, which is poised to go up to 9.3 million tonnes by 2011.

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