Adhikari lays foundation stone for 2 new plants of Exide Industries

Kolkata: Suvendu Adhikari, state minister for Transport and chairman of Haldia Development Authority, laid the foundation for two plants at the Exide Industries premises in Haldia on Tuesday.

The battery manufacturing expansion project and the greenfield battery recycling plant will be funded by the company's internal reserves. In the current financial year of 2018-19, the company has planned a capital expenditure of Rs 1,100 crore. The bulk of that will be spent on these two projects.

In collaboration with Italy's Energitech Technologies, one of the leading players in this field, the lead recycling plant in Haldia will have a monthly capacity of 15,000 metric tonnes, making it the country's largest lead recycling plant. The plant will employ environmentally safe and latest state-of-art technologies, conforming to technical norms set by the Basel Convention.

"We are embarking on a two-pronged strategy to make Haldia one of the largest and integrated self-sufficient battery-making centres in South-East Asia, where we manufacture everything from recycled lead to finished battery," said Gautam Chatterjee, managing director and CEO of Exide Industries.