Kerala Paper Products Ltd, Vellore, has started commercial production of newsprint. Kerala Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal inaugurated the operations in the presence of P Rajeeve, Industries Minister, A. K Saseendran, Minister for Forest and Wildlife Protection, and V. N. Vasavan, Minister for Cooperation.
Flagging off the first load of paper rolled out by the unit, Balagopal said the takeover of a Central public sector unit by a State Government was rare.
Industries Minister Rajeeve said the government aims to develop KPPL into an enterprise with a turnover of Rs 3,000 crore. On completion of the third and fourth phases of developmental work, KPPL would have an annual production capacity of 5 lakh tonnes, employing around 3,000 people.
In the first phase, KPPL would produce high-quality 45 GSM newsprints. As the operations settle down, KPPL would produce 42 GSM newsprints and 52-70 GSM writing and printing paper.
Earlier known as Hindustan Newsprint Ltd, the company stopped operations in January 2019. The Kerala Government then took over the plant in a bidding process and renamed it Kerala Paper Products Ltd.
The State has chalked out a four-phase revival plan for the unit. The outlay on the first two phases is Rs 154.39 crore. The third phase envisages capacity expansion and portfolio dversification, entailing an investment of Rs 650 crore.