FACT-RCF Building Products Ltd, a joint venture between FACT and the Mumbai-based RCF, for manufacturing gypsum-based wall panels and building materials is nearing completion at FACT Ambalamedu campus. This 50:50 joint venture company is being installed on a 12-acre land at a project cost of Rs 100 crore.

The project is complete by about 97 per cent and all the machinery has been erected and tested. The wet gypsum handling section has been commissioned. The calciner was lit up and some plaster was made in the last week of May. The calciner is fully operational now. The commissioning of mixing plant is in the final stage and is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

The company said in a statement that they are expecting an expert team from Rapid Building Systems, Australia, the technology suppliers, to reach here and take up the commissioning of wall panel manufacturing section by September.

The FRBL project has been conceived to utilise the accumulated stock of about 60 lakh tonnes of gypsum, which is a by-product in the production of phosphoric acid stockpiled at FACT's Ambalamedu and Udyogamandal units. These panels will replace brick walls in building construction, and effectively save cement, sand, steel, water and labour. Since the panels are ready to erect, the construction requires only 1/5{+t}{+h} of the conventional construction time.

FRBL has the capacity to produce about 39,000 panels each of 36 sq m size a year. Besides wall panels, this unit will produce interior wall putty (45,000 tonnes a year) and interior wall plaster (24,000 tonnes a year). The plant will require about 108000 tonnes of gypsum a year.

There has been some delay in the completion of the project due to various unexpected development beyond the company's control, the statement added.

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