Mumbai, Jan. 24: Century Textiles and Industries Ltd, the BK Birla flagship, is embarking upon a Rs 525-crore expansion of its paper and denim capacities.

The board took these decisions today at a meeting, which was primarily held to consider the third quarter results.

Century Textiles informed stock exchanges that an investment of Rs 385 crore has been earmarked for the paper division. It proposes to expand the capacity by 211 tonnes per day from waste paper or other unconventional raw-materials available at the company?s pulp and paper division at Lalkua in Uttaranchal.

The board has also decided to invest up to Rs 140 crore for expanding the manufacturing capacity of the denim plant. The company plans to produce 10 million metres of fabrics per annum by installing new machines, including a 4-megawatt power plant in Madhya Pradesh.

Century Textiles will be undertaking the expansion of the denim capacity in the new quota-free regime that has been commenced recently. Textile major Raymond has already started expanding its denim capacity.

In the run-up to the new regime, textile majors like Arvind Mills have moved their manufacturing facilities to Mauritius to take advan-tage of the huge demand forecast.