CALCUTTA, June 15: Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) which is setting up a Rs 5,170-crore naphtha-based project at the port town of Haldia, has awarded contracts for the construction of eight of its nine major plants.

The mechanical completion of the project is scheduled on April 30, 1999, while the commercial production is expected by June of the same year.

The contract for the ninth plant - to make linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) - will be signed shortly, a high official of the state government told The Financial Express after the board meeting of HPL here on Saturday.

Montell of Holland will provide technology for the LLDPE plant, which will have a capacity of 1,20,000 tonne per annum (tpa).

HPL is jointly promoted by the West Bengal government, the US-based Soros-Chatterjee group and the Tata group with a 3:3:1 share-holding pattern.The physical construction work for the Rs 1000-crore naphtha cracker plant has already been started by Toyo Engineering of Japan

. The cracker, using technology from ABB Lummus Global Inc of the USA, will have an initial ethylene production capacity of 3,00,000 tpa with provision for expansion up to 4,20,000 tonnes per annum.

Lurgi AG of Germany has bagged the contracts for the construction of three associated units of the cracker - to make benzene, butadiene and pyrolysis gasoline.

Technology for the 66,000 tpa benzene unit will be provided by Lurgi, that for the 66,000 tpa butadiene unit by BASF of Germany, and for the 79,000 tpa pyrolysis gasoline unit by Institute Francais du Petrole of France.

Daelim of South Korea has bagged the construction contracts for the two dedicated units to make high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) homopolymer and copolymer.

Each of these two units will cost Rs 400 crore. Technology for the 2,00,000 tpa HDPE unit will be provided by Mitsui of Japan, while that for the 2,10,000 tpa PP unit by Montell of Holland.

Construction work for these units is expected to begin in a month, the government official said.The contracts for two build-own-operate (BOO) units have already been awarded. The captive power plant will be built by Larsen & Toubro with Chiyoda of Japan as partner, and the nitrogen plant will be set up by Bangalore-based Praxair. Bechtel of the US has been retained as project management contractor for HPL during the project implementation stage, while engineering, procurement and construction management for integrated offsites has been awarded to Engineers India Ltd, a Delhi-based public sector unit.

All the finances for technical construction have been tied up, the official said.

HPL has an authorised capital of Rs 2000 crore. The promoters have committed to subscribe to their combined 51 per cent stake, and have already paid up half of this. The company has secured a Rs 1,400-crore term loan and deferred payment guarantees of Rs 1,000 crore. However, the company is yet to mop up the remaining Rs 700 crore. ``Obviously, we are looking for the cheapest loan,'' he added.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.