Emami to enter biodiesel business

India’s Emami Group plans to invest around Rs500 crores (US$112.79 million) in the biodiesel industry in the next few years. Out of the proposed Rs500 crores investment plan, Emami Biotech Private Limited, which is part of the Emami group, has approved Rs350 crores (US$78.95 million) to be invested in the next two to three years. Emami Biotech plans to undertake jatropha plantation on a massive scale in Bihar, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, in partnership with the respective governments. A pilot biodiesel plant is also being built in Kolkata. The Kolkata-based company plans to set up a biodiesel plant at Haldia, with a capacity of one lakh tons per annum, a source said. “The plant is likely to be operational by June next year,” the source said. (January 7, 2007)