Newsprint PSU Nepa resumes commercial production; to create jobs

New Delhi: Government-owned newsprint maker Nepa Limited on Tuesday resumed commercial production at its manufacturing facility here after a gap of six years with an enhanced production capacity of 1 lakh tonnes per year.

Inaugurating the facility, Union Minister for Heavy Industries Mahendra Nath Pandey said the plant will open huge job opportunities and would help promote the development of this region.

He also said that the plant will help increase self-reliance in newsprint.

The installed capacity of this plant, which was closed in 2016, is 1 lakh tonnes per annum as against 88,000 tonnes per annum in 2016, Pandey added.

In October 2018, the government had approved a Rs 469.41 crore package for the revival and mill development plan of the closed NEPA mill in Madhya Pradesh. NEPA Ltd is a public sector newsprint company, incorporated in 1947.

Speaking at the event, Nepa Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Saurabv Deb said, We will further make investments to improve system and processes as well as on new products development and marketing activities to grow our business and become profitable.

Deb said that the aim is to achieve a turnover of Rs 395 crore this fiscal year and Rs 554.36 crore in 2023-24.

The turnover of the company was Rs 72 crore in 2015-16.

It also plans to diversify into writing and printing paper production along with newsprint.

Supported by a revival and mill development plan, Nepa Ltd has managed to fully automate its facility, clear its various obligations and reduce cost, thus resulting in one of the few cases of the PSU (public sector undertaking) revival in the country.

From November 2021, the company has hired 310 people of which 75 percent are from nearby areas, he said.

Nepa Ltd was incorporated as a private enterprise on 26th January 1947 by Nair Press Syndicate Ltd under the name of 'The National newsprint and paper Mills Ltd' fothe r production of newsprint and was the sole newsprint manufacturing unit in India up to 1981.

The mill was dedicated to the nation by India's first Prime Minister late Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru on April 26, 1956, with the start of commercial production.

The strategic disinvestment of NEPA Limited on completion of the RMDP at an appropriate time was also approved by the Union cabinet.

(With PTI inputs)

(PSU Watch– India's Business News centre that places the spotlight on PSUs, Bureaucracy, Defence and Public Policy is now on Google News. Click here to follow. Also, join PSU Watch Channel in your Telegram. You may also follow us on Twitter here and stay updated.)