Sources said the company has already received government of India's permission for foreign collaboration and the project is estimated to cost Rs 50 crore. The work on the project is expected to resume shortly. This would be KK Birla company's second joint venture project.

It has already entered into collaboration with office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP), a Moroccan government company to set up a plant in Morocco at an estimated cost of $228 million, sources said.

The plant in Morocco is expected to go on stream by August this year, sources said adding India Software group, the software division of the company, has recently been awarded a contract by OCP.

Meanwhile, the expansion programme of the company to double the capacity of the fertiliser plant at Gadepan at a cost of Rs 1256 crore is progressingahead of schedule and expected to go on stream by October, 1999.

After the commencement of this plant, the company would become the largest producer of urea in the private sector, sources claimed.

This apart, the Rs 794- crore company is also planning to set up a spinning unit with an installed capacity of 26,400 spindles at Baddi in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 98 crore with a debt equity ratio of 2:1 and the project is expected to be completed before March 31, 2000, sources said.

Meanwhile, in order to protect the investors of the company, considering higher incidents of fraudulent encashment of warrants, impersonation, loss of warrants and delay in transit, it plans to introduce electronic clearing service (ECS) for the payment of dividend on equity shares, interest on debentures and fixed deposits.

The system will enable the shareholders and depositors get an instant credit of dividend or interest payments in their bank account on due dates through RBI clearingsystem at no extra cost.

The company would be among the first few corporates to go in for ECS, sources said, adding investors would not be bothered with the chore of depositing instruments with the bank and suffer delay in the receipt of credit.

At present, the ECS facility is available only in ten cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai, but it is reported that RBI would extend the facility to 30 more centres shortly.