Tinplate MD Bushen Raina (centre) with VP (corporate) T.K. Ghosh (left) and chief (finance & accounts) D. Chakraborty in Calcutta on Thursday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, July 28: The Tinplate Company of India Ltd (TCIL) will double its capacity by investing Rs 400 crore by 2007-08. It has also decided to enter the beverage can business.

The expansion will take the capacity to 350,000 tonnes. The company is already on its way to achieve a capacity of 170,000 tonnes within this fiscal by investing Rs 58 crore.

The Tinplate board has given an in-principle approval for the expansion, said managing director Bushen Raina.

The details of the project will be finalised in another four to five months, including the location as well as financing model.

TCIL is also planning to set up a facility to make beverage cans, Raina told reporters after the 86th annual general meeting of the company.

The company is likely to take the joint venture route for the new facility. ?We need technical collaborators too,? he said.

The unit, with an annual capacity of 400 million cans, will cost about Rs 40-50 crore. It is likely to be set up outside Jamshedpur, where the existing Tinplate facility is located.

?We need to be close to the consuming industry to save on freight cost,? he added.

The beverage can business would mean an additional revenue of Rs 25-30 crore for the company.

To become a cost-effective packaging solution provider, TCIL will set up a painting and lacquering facility as well.

During the first quarter, TCIL has posted a net profit of Rs 10.22 crore compared with Rs 7.45 crore in the same period last year. It has an accumulated loss of Rs 19 crore on March 31, 2005.

?We want to be back in the dividend list as soon as possible,? Raina said.