Jhinkpani (Chaibasa), Nov. 5: Chief minister Arjun Munda today laid the foundation stone for a new unit of the Associated Cement Companies (ACC)’s ailing plant at Jhinkpani, located within the limestone-rich region of southwest Chaibasa.

ACC will invest between Rs 260 crore and Rs 270 crore for setting up a new 1.2 million tonne clinkering unit and a 1.5 MW power plant on the premises of the company. The new unit is expected to jack up production four times. The new unit will be commissioned in January 2005.

Munda said the government was willing to offer special packages to companies which were willing to set up plant in the newly created Singhbhum-Kolhan division. “This has been the only ailing plant in Kolhan. No other cement plant has been set up here even five decades after Independence. So any company which invests more than Rs 50 crore in the new division will be given special incentives. Since the management of ACC is willing to invest around Rs 170 crore, a number of rebates has been given to the ailing plant,” he said.

The technology of the ACC plant, set up in 1946, has become outdated. “No plant can survive without modernisation. When the management of the company tabled the proposal for expansion, the government came forward with its incentive package,” Munda said.

ACC managing director M.L. Narula said: “With the help of the Indian Bureau of Mines, the quality of limestone has improved over the past two years. But the wet processing technology has become outdated in the new millennium. Some rival companies are producing the best quality of cement with minimum investment. ACC can’t survive unless it goes for an expansion.”

Vice-president of Chaibasa Cement Works A. Roy Chowdhury said production would multiply four times once the clinkering unit was commissioned. He urged the government to offer more incentives to the people. “The incentive given to the company had not been very attractive. But we hope the present government will give more incentive in the coming years. The company has been doing a lot of social work for the interest of the tribal people. Schools and community halls have been constructed. The company has arranged for drinking water and irrigation facilities in various villages,” he said.

Industry minister Rabindra Rai said the government had given a new lease of life to the ACC plant in Kolhan was in a critical situation.