KOCHI: Kerala Paper Products Limited (KPPL), Vellore, began the commercial production of newsprint on Tuesday. Finance Minister K N Balagopal inaugurated the operations at a function held on the KPPL campus which was presided over by Industries Minister P Rajeeve. Forest Minister A K Saseendran, Cooperation Minister V N Vasavan, MPs Jose K Mani and Thomas Chazhikkadan, MLAs C K Asha, and Mons Joseph and various dignitaries attended the function.
While Minister Balagopal said the taking over of a public sector unit (PSU) from the central government by a state government is rare, Minister Rajeeve termed it a historic movement. “The re-opening of a closed PSU is happening for the first time in Indian industrial history,” he said.
The ministers, along with the people’s representatives and various officials, visited the paper plant and the de-inking plant. They also flagged off the vehicle carrying the first load of the paper manufactured at the plant.
In the first phase, the KPPL will produce high-quality 45 GSM (Grammes per Square Metre) newsprint, said KPPL special officer Prasad Balakrishnan. “As the plant attains consistency in its operations, we will be able to produce 42 GSM newsprint and 52 to 70 GSM writing and printing paper,” he said.
The government aims to develop the KPPL into an enterprise with a turnover of Rs 3,000 crore. “On the completion of the third and fourth phases of the plant’s developmental work, the KPPL will become an enterprise with an annual production capacity of 5 lakh metric tonnes of newsprint, employing around 3,000 people,” said the special officer.
For the time being, the KPPL won’t be selling the newsprint directly to the newspaper publishing houses. “The newsprint will be sold to the distributors by inviting tenders,” he said. KPPL was known as Hindustan Newsprint Limited, a public sector enterprise under the central government. It stopped its operations on January 2019.