Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Sugars set for first full

Date 18-Jun-2010        Source THE HINDU.BUSINESS LINE        Reporter Our Bureau        News Id 190

Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Sugars Pvt Ltd, an integrated sugar mill complex that started operations in the current season, has completed trial production.Work on a distillery unit is expected to start soon, according to company officials.Set up at an investment of about Rs 300 crore, the sugar mill commenced operations in February 2010 and crushed about 1.25 lakh tonnes of sugarcane, according to company officials. The factory with a capacity to crush 3,500 tonnes of sugarcane daily is located at Perambalur. The facility also includes a 23 MW multi- fuel cogeneration plant which has also gone on stream. The cogeneration unit is for now using bagasse carried over from the season as fuel and will switch over to coal during the off-season. The unit will feed a surplus 19 MW of power to the State grid. The sugar mill and cogeneration unit are fully automated. The next step for the company would be a 60 klpd (60 kilolitres a day) distillery that is to be set up by the start of the next season. The company has placed orders for the equipment which will be place over the next six to seven months. Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Sugars will invest Rs 50 crore in the distillery, the official said. For the 2010-11 season, there is adequate sugarcane in the fields. From November, the sugar mill will crush about 7-8 lakh tonnes of sugarcane till May 2011, estimates the company. The sugar mill has about 22,000-23,000 acres of sugarcane area for now.