The cement unit of Kutch-based Nuvoco Vistas Corporation, owned by Gujarat-based cement firm Nirma, plans to set up a new 2 million tonnes-per-year capacity cement grinding unit in Kutch. It is part of their strategy to revive the cement units they acquired recently from Vadraj Cements.

Earlier, Nuvoco had set aside Rs 12 billion to get the ancient Vadraj cement plants in Kutch and Surat operational. But with the addition of the new grinding unit, the total expense will now be Rs 15 billion.

The managing director of the company, Jayakumar Krishnaswamy, stated that they have good business prospects in Kutch and hence decided to establish the new unit there. They aim to finish the whole project—repairing the old plants and constructing the new unit—by December 2027.

The investment will be made in three phases:

• Rs 6 billion in 2025
• Rs 6 billion in 2026
• Rs 3 billion in 2027

To finance this, Nuvoco will employ funds generated from its own revenues and will maintain usual expenses low (Rs 1-1.5 billion annually) to accumulate sufficient cash for this investment.

At Vadraj, Nuvoco acquired:

• A cement clinker plant (3.5 MTPA capacity) in Kutch
• A grinding plant (6 MTPA) at Surat
• High quality limestone mines
• A private jetty (port) in Kutch

This will increase Nuvoco’s overall cement production capacity to around 31 million tonnes annually. Besides the Rs 15 billion initial operations cost, Nuvoco also has to pay Rs 18 billion upfront to acquire the Vadraj assets.