Sanmar Group's flagship company, Chemplast Sanmar Ltd, has started operations at Greenfield PVC plant, at Cuddalore, developed by the company investing Rs 600- crore along with a marine terminal facility (MTF).

State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Sipcot) has allocated 69.5 acres of land for the PVC plant, which is expected to double Chemplast business to achieve turnover targets of Rs 1,000 crore by 2010-11.

Company's Chairman, PS Jayaraman said: "This is the only chemical project of such a large scale to have come up in Tamil Nadu in the last 15 years."

Initially, the plant would produce 140,000 tonnes PVC which would be increased to 170,000 tonnes in phases, challenging rivals DCW in Tuticorin, Reliance and Fiolex having significant market share. The firm will confine itself primarily to South India, besides some parts of Orissa, West Bengal and Delhi for marketing PVC.

The company would now have a total capacity of around 2,35,000 tonnes per annum, including the 65,000 tonnes per annum capacity of its Mettur plant. India's per capita PVC consumption is just 1.2 per cent; while in developed countries like the US and Germany consumption is 19 per cent and 17.4 per cent respectively.

M N Ravikumar, Vice-president - projects said: "This is the only chemical plant at Cuddalore having its own desalination plant."