Kolkata, April 22 (IANS) Birla Corporation Limited, the flagship company of the M.P. Birla Group, posted net profit of Rs.137.50 crore during the last quarter (January-March) 2009-10 against Rs.90.61 crore in the previous corresponding period.

The company stated improvement in demand for cement arising out of higher order inflow from government-led infrastructural and rural housing projects as one of the key reasons for this growth in net profit.

Regarding the cement plant at Satna (Madhya Pradesh), it said, the first phase of the programme to enhance the clinker capacity to 7,400 tonne per day (tpd) has already been completed and for the second and final phase, a planned shut-down has already been taken.

The second phase is expected to be completed by July 2010. The capacity at Satna would increase to 9,600 tpd once the second phase is completed.

Similarly, at Chanderia (Rajasthan), the expansion programme has already been completed and a 1.2 million tonne brownfield plant is being installed which would raise the capacity to 3.49 million tonne.

The grinding capacity at Durgapur (West Bengal) is being increased by 0.6 million tonne which after completion would raise the total capacity there to 2.3 million tonne.

"To optimize on the logistic costs, it is proposed to install a mixing and packing plant with a capacity of 3 lakh tonne per annum at Kota, Rajasthan," it said.

After completion of the above expansion programmes, the effective annual capacity of the cement division of the company will stand enhanced at about 9 million tonne.

Two power plants, based on waste heat recovery, at Satna (15 MW) and Chanderia (7.5 MW) are expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2010-11, it said.

"The jute division, which has been suffering for more than 15 years, has finally turned around during the year due to various management initiatives such as modernisation of machinery, reduction in wastage and use of jute caddies as fuel in the boilers."