GUJARAT ALKALIES - New Projects

have registered a regression.
Growth is evidenced in abundance in Grasim Industries. Last year itself there was an accretion of Rs 369 crore in gross block out of which Rs 290 crore was on account of capital work-in-progress. According to the directors' report, in response to the government's liberalised industrial policy, the company has undertaken a very substantial expansion of its viscose staple fibre capacity, while the directors expect that in the interest of the small weavers in the decentralised sector and that of the lower income group of people using staple fibre fabrics, the government will give due consideration to the representations made by the company for reducing the high incidence of excise duty on the fibre, A record level of 2,792 hectares plantation of wood pulp for production of rayon grade pulp was undertaken in Karna- taka during the year under review. A new 25 MW captive power plant for supply of power for the caustic soda plant at Birlagram, Nagda, was scheduled for start-up in May 1992, and the commissioning of the chloro- sulphonic acid (CSA) project for utilising chlorine was expected in the third quarter of this year. The engineering division is to diversify into the new areas of manufacture of equipment for dairy and sponge iron plants.