IANS

Kolkata, Sep 20: Metallurgy coke producer Gujarat NRE Coke is likely to start production at its Dharwad facility in Karnataka next month, a top company official said here Saturday.

"The Dharwad plant is almost ready with a quarter million tonne capacity. Production will start shortly," Gujarat NRE chairman and managing director Arun Kumar Jagatramka told reporters on the sidelines of the company's annual general meeting.

The greenfield Dharwad coke oven battery project, set up by company subsidiary Bharat NRE Coke, has eight chimneys and an installed capacity of 0.324 million tonnes per annum.

Gujarat NRE's Indian operations produce over one million tonnes of metallurgy coke, with the company now planning to increase capacity by setting up two plants of one million tonnes each in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat that would take its total capacity to around four million tonnes in the next three to five years.

Its Australian operations yielded 0.85 million tonnes of coke last year, and Jagatramka said a target of 1.7 million tonnes has been set for March 2010, and 2.5 million tonnes for March 2011.

Among other developments, he said Gujarat NRE has decided to issue bonus shares carrying differential voting rights in the ratio of one share for every 10 normal shares held.

"The decision to issue shares carrying lower voting rights was taken at a board meeting today," he said.