Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd will close down its polyester intermediate mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) manufacturing plant in Kurkumbh, which is 70 km from Pune, and transfer the complete unit to a new place.

According to a company representative, “We will relocate the small standalone unit to a place with better linkage to raw material.”

He added that availability of better economies of scale was the main purpose for the company to change its place. The bureaucrat declined to mention on where and when the rearrangement will take place.

The 150-acre unit constructed MEG from industrial alcohol. It has 90 employees on its rolls and 250 laborers on a contract basis.

Initially the plant was promoted by S.M. Dyechem Ltd and RIL adopted it from IDBI in January 2005. RIL had warranted the acquirement citing immediacy to Maharashtra’s sugar belt that assured adequate alcohol availability.

It had an MEG capacity of 80,000 tonnes yearly and used the capacitances for internal use at its polyester plants at Patalganga and for fulfilling the requirements of its clients in the Western region.

There was information that Reliance also plans to convert the unit to make a storage facility with advanced cold chain management systems for the consumable goods sold in its retail outlets.