Cement Giant Coming Up in Assam

Silchar, Sep 8 : Assam’s biggest cement plant will come up near the railway town of Badarpur in Karimganj district in the middle of 2013.

To cost Rs 267 crore, the Valley Strong Cement (Assam) Limited, at Debendranagar village, will be capable of producing 6.6 lakh tonnes of cement a year.

Promoted by the Chamaria-Gorodia group, which has another cement plant at Debendranagar, the plant will be the third of its kind in Barak Valley.

Chamaria-Gorodia group’s other cement plant, called Barak Valley Cement Plant, has an annual output of 3lakh tonnes a year.

Debandranagar’s second cement plant will come up on a 30-hectare plot near the group’s first cement plant.

The group’s vice-president (finance and administration), Mukesh Agarwal, today said the construction of this plant would get off the ground as soon as they get clearance from the Union ministry of the forest and environment ministry.

A mass hearing of the residents of Debendranagar village was held at the behest of the Regional Pollution Control Board of the state government recently, where villagers unanimously approved of the second plant at the village.

With a population of 6,000, Debendranagar has its advantages, especially in terms of location.

First, is its proximity to National Highway 44, which joins Barak Valley and adjoining Tripura to the rest of the country.

Hence, it will be easy to import raw materials from adjoining Meghalaya.

The entire Barak Valley has the advantage of importing limestone from Jaintia hills in adjacent Meghalaya, which is a three-hour drive from Badarpur.

Second, it is only 2km from the Barak river.

During monsoon, when the river is in full spate, cement can be sent to Bengal and other states by cargo vessels at a low cost.

Besides, the village is only 45km from Silchar airport and 4km from the metre gauge point of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).

Agarwal said the proposed plant would provide employment to around 1,000 people.

He said their second plant would go a long way in meeting the annual demand for 4.75 million tonnes of cement in the Northeast. The output of cement, mainly Portland variety, in the Northeast is estimated at 2.21 million tonnes, which is 55 per cent of the total requirement, at present.