India’s Birla Corp has announced plans to increase its total cement capacity to 25Mta by 2025, with an investment of INR50bn (US$701.5m). The new capacity will be shared between the company’s existing facilities and those acquired from Reliance Cement.

The first phase of expansion will see an investment of INR24.5bn in a new integrated plant at Mukutban, Nagpur, to boost overall capacity to 19.5Mta. A further INR2.5bn will be spent on a third line at its Lucknow facility taking it to 3.6Mta from 2.4Mta. These projects are scheduled for completion by mid-2021.The second phase includes plans for a greenfield grinding unit in Bihar.