Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 19 (IANS) Diversified conglomerate JK Group Tuesday announced its maiden entry into the power sector with an investment of Rs.1,300 crore for the first phase of a proposed 1,500 megawatt power plant in Madhya Pradesh.

“We are in the process of installing a 1,500 MW power plant in Madhya Pradesh. The first phase of the power plant would be commissioned in two years time,” JK Tyre and Industries vice chairman and managing director Raghupti Singhania told reporters here.

The first phase of power plant would generate 660 MW mw of thermal power. The plant is to be set up in Madhya Pradesh but near Jhansi, which is in Uttar Pradesh.

“This is basically a commercial project and the business will be controlled under a separate entity and we will form a special purpose vehicle in the coming days,” said Singhania.

The company had earlier said that the total investment in the power plant has been estimated at Rs.7,000 crore.

Talking about JK Tyres, the tyre manufacturing unit of the group, Singhania said that it has already invested around Rs.1,500 crore in capacity expansion at its tyre factories based in the southern cities of Mysore and Chennai.

“With the increase in demand, we had to increase capacity. We have increased the capacity at our Mysore factory, while the Chennai factory is expected to be operationlised from this year,” Singhania said.

The company’s Chennai plant is expected to have a capacity of 2.5 million passenger vehicle tyres and 450,000 units of TBR (truck, bus radials) tyres.

The tyre major, however, expressed concern at the rising rubber prices which had earlier forced the company to hike tyre prices.

Currently, the $2.5-billion diversified group has interests in several sectors like tyre, cement and paper businesses.