Comments
Loss-making Riga Sugar Company Ltd is planning to scale up bagasse-based co-generation capacity by 3 MW at its sugar mill in Bihar. This will help the company improve its profitability through sale of excess power to the state electricity distribution utility.
Bagasse is the fibrous remains of sugarcane, after extraction of the juice.
According to O.P. Dhanuka, Chairman and Managing Director, the company expects to earn Rs 2.5-3 crore through sale of around 3 MW excess power. Riga now generates 8 MW from the co-generation facility.
“The capacity expansion project is already on course. We hope to start selling 3 MW power to the State utility by this December,” Dhanuka told Business Line .
The Rs 198-crore company posted a net loss of Rs 3.21 crore in 2012-13. Riga Sugar’s shares closed at Rs 11.50, up by 2.59 per cent, on the BSE on Wednesday.
The company is also planning to set up a 25-MW bagasse-based electricity generation facility near the sugar mill. The project, which is expected to be on stream in 2015, will entail an estimated Rs 100 crore investment. “We have already initiated talks with two to three partners to form a joint venture for this project,” Dhanuka said.
The facility is expected to boost the bottomline by Rs 15-17 crore a year, he added.
“We have requested the Bihar Government to allocate 40 acres to build the proposed co-generation plant,” he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.