SPMCIL to invest in security paper and ink manufacturing as a part of its Rs 2500-cr expansion plan

In a statement to the shareholders during sixth AGM on 10 August 2011, chairman managing director, M S Rana said that Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL) will be investing in manufacturing of Cylinder Watermarked Bank Note (CWBN) paper and security inks as a part of its road map of investment of about Rs 2,500-cr over five years up to 2013-14.

11 Sep 2011 | By Samir Lukka

A shareholders agreement was signed for joint venture company called Bank Note Paper Mill India between SPMCIL and BRBNMPL on 50:50 equity basis for setting up two lines of CWBN paper at Mysore, having capacity of 12,000 metric tonnes. According to the statement, installation of pulping unit and procurement of one line CWBN paper machine for production of about 5,000 metric tonnes has been completed at the Security Printing Mill (SPM), Hoshangabad.

Together, it will lead to indigenous production of 85% of the required CWBN paper as against 95% being imported at present in about three years time. The SPM, Hoshangabad produced 2857.08 metric tonnes of CWBN paper as against 1945.90 metric tonnes during 2009-10, an increase in production by 46%.
 
In 2010-11, the ink factory at Bank Note Press, Dewas produced highest ever security inks of 298 metric tonnes as against 242 metric tonnes during 2009-10, thus increasing its production by 23.14%. In order to enhance the production of indigenous ink for security printing, modernisation and expansion of the ink factory at Dewas has been taken up at about Rs 12-cr.

With this, the requirement of SPMCIL and BRBNMPL for the offset number and intaglio ink will be taken care of. In addition, installation of the online and offline quality improvement systems for all the presses have been taken up to reduce wastage and enhance the quality of security products and bank notes.

"The enhanced production of indigenous CWBN paper and security inks are important milestones towards achieving indigenisation of critical raw materials needed for printing of our currency notes," said Rana.

Additionally, the installation and commissioning of one new printing line in place of the existing old line is at an advanced stage at Bank Note Press, Dewas. The corporation’s two currency note presses produced 5,472 mpcs of currency notes during 2010-11 as against 7,083 mpcs in 2009-10.

The decrease was primarily due to slowdown of work  by the unions for implementation of incentive scheme, disruption of paper supplies due to a glitch with a bank note paper supplier and a sudden exodus of critical man power due to voluntary retirement of 415 employees. India Security Press, Nashik produced 72.60 lakhs of passports this year as against 81.29 lakhs in 2009-10.  

The company is implementing SAP across all the nine units of SPMCIL. This is company strategy to bring about automisation by integrating all the nine units of SPMCIL and the corporate office.

The nine units of SPMCIL include India Government Mint (Mumbai), India Government Mint (Kolkata), India Government Mint (Hyderabad), India Government Mint (Noida), Currency Note Press (Nashik), Bank Note Press (Dewas), India Security Press (Nashik), Security Printing Press (Hyderabad) and Security Paper Mill (Hoshangabad).