Binani Cement Ltd has decided to make an investment of more than Rs 900 crore for establishing greenfield plants both in India as well as abroad to raise its overall production capacity to 15 million tonnes by the next three years (2011-12).

The company plans to invest around Rs 800 crore on the construction of a new plant in Gujarat, which would have an installed production capacity of about 2.5 million tonnes.

Moreover, the company is also eyeing a unit in Mauritius with a proposed capacity of two million tonnes.

Mr. Vinod Juneja, Binani Cement Managing Director, stated, “During Vibrant Gujarat Investor Summit, we are signing an MoU with the state government to invest about Rs 800 crore to set up a plant with an installed capacity of up to 2.5 million tonnes.”

The production facility, which will be set up at Junagarh region in Gujarat, is likely to be operational by the third quarter of 2011.

Mr. Juneja also said that the company’s production plant in Mauritius would have an initial capacity of one million tonnes as there is no cement plant in that country.

He added that the overall capacity would be scalable up to two million tonnes.

While commenting on the source of funding, Mr. Juneja said, “For the Gujarat project we are funding through debt-equity of 1:1 and for this our financial tie-up has been completed. Loans will be syndicated by five banks.”

With two plants in Rajasthan and the NCR region, the company has an installed production capacity of 6.5 million tonnes in India.

After expansion, the company’s (Binani) overall capacity would be nine million tonnes in India.

“We are targeting to reach 15 million-tonnes capacity by 2011-12,” Mr. Juneja said.

The company, on Jan 03, has started discussions with a few foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to raise Rs 15 billion for its new projects.

Binani aims for cement and mining projects in Gujarat and Rajasthan in 2009.

Binani has already got 25 acres of land in Gujarat to set up a 2.5 million ton per annum (MTPA) cement and grinding plant for Rs 8 billion.