The plant needs 20MW power per day and the company had planned to have a power back up facility so that production does not suffer when the €75 million plant starts stamping out PCBs. The proposed plant will be the country's first PCB manufacturing facility.

Says L Balachandran, project manager and general manager India, "The Tamil Nadu government has assured us continuous supply of quality power by setting up the necessary infrastructure. Hence we have shelved our captive power project facility."

On the company's other worry supply of water he says the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Sipcot) has assured supply of needed quantities. It should be noted PCB manufacturing process requires huge quantities of water for rinsing, washing and other processes. The plant needs around 1,200 cubic metres of water per day and after recycling of waste water the net requirement per day will be 350 cubic metres.

However the disposal of hazardous waste is the one issue that is bogging the company. The PCB manufacturing involves use of acids, metals and chemicals and the waste will have a mix of these. Interestingly the economic viability of the project also depends on the recovery of metals from the waste.

"While we have identified some people for recovery and recycle of normal sludge it is the disposal of hazardous waste that is worrying us," remarks Balachandran. The company is considering options like exporting the waste or burying it in a landfill. "We are planning to ship out the hazardous waste as the landfill is not available."

According to him the project is progressing as planned. "Construction will start in January/February and in September 2007 the plant will be operational."

The two phased project will initially cater to the domestic market- mainly to the needs of Nokia- and later the other mobile phone manufacturers setting up production base here and also the global market.