Vishwakarma Cements, a member of Triveni Group, presently manufactures Vishwakarma and Gorkha brands of cement with annual production capacity of 300,000 tons. [break]
The new plant will have total production capacity of 1,200 tons of clinkers per day. “Vishwakarma´s own units will consume 60 percent of the clinkers, while the remaining will be available to other manufacturers,” PL Sanghai, managing director of Vishwakarma Cements, told myrepublica.com.
Vishwakarma´s clinker plant situated at Laxmipur VDC of Dang will have an annual production capacity of 360,000 tons, which will meet 14.4 percent of the annual cement demand in the country. Construction works of the plant began in December, 2009. The company received permission to build clinker plant from Department of Mine and Geology in 2008.
“We are in the process of importing a clinker producing machine from KHD Kumboldt Wedag, a German company,” said Sanghai, adding that an estimated investment of Rs 4.5 trillion would be required to build the plant. “We are looking for foreign partner for the project. But nothing has been finalized yet.”
Sanghai said the new plant would directly employ 200 to 250 persons and generate indirect employment opportunities for about 1,500 to 2,000 persons.
Establishing a clinker-based industry requires a lot of investment plus a myriad of challenges like infrastructural bottlenecks. The lack of access road and power and the prevalence of strikes eventually increase operational cost.
“Along with infrastructural bottlenecks, there is also a severe shortage of trained manpower, mainly mechanical and electronic engineers specializing in cement manufacturing. But we plan to address the issue by providing training to our employees while they work for us,” Sanghai said, adding, “But it is going to be a troublesome task as we need to invest a lot of time and effort on them.”
Lack of investment in the sector is another thing to worry about, according to Sanghai. “The central bank´s recent decision to raise interest rates has seriously affected our plan,” he added.
Sanghai sees a tremendous opportunity for his new venture despite strong competition from readymade Indian cement.
“If we succeeded in exploiting our full potential, Nepal can improve its trade balance in India by stopping the flow of millions rupees through cement imports,” he said, and added: “It will also generate thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities.”
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