After being shut for over five years, a trial run for the Sirpur Paper Mills in Telangana began on Thursday with machine number 7 of the paper mill being switched on. The mill, which was bought by JK Paper Limited last year, is expected to begin full operations by April this year.

The Sirpur Paper Mills, located at Kagazhnagar in Kumaram Bheem Asifabad district, was taken over by JK Paper from the state government in 2018. The company bought the mill through a Rs 782 crore resolution plan approved by the National Company Law Tribunal and has a 76.37% stake in the mill.

The Sirpur Paper Mills commenced operations in 1938 during the Nizam rule. It last reported a turnover of Rs 430.59 crore in 2014 and had remained shut since then.

With the trail run, the paper mill is expected to begin producing 70 tonnes of paper per day for the next few days as maintenance works on other machines are still ongoing, reported The Hindu. The plant has a total of eight machines and a capacity to produce 1.3 lakh tonnes of paper per annum. The pulp required for the mill is being brought from the JK Paper Mill at Rayagada in Odisha. 

The Telangana government had extended a slew of sops to get JK Paper to buy the mill. For taking over the defunct paper mill, the Telangana government has extended a 100% gross GST reimbursement for 10 years, a 100% stamp duty exemption and a capital subsidy of 20% on investments subject to a maximum of Rs 50 crore.

Concessions were also being offered to debark eucalyptus or subabul trees along with degraded forest blocks for plantations. JK Paper has also been offered a coal block that they could secure through an auction conducted by the state-owned Singareni Collieries Company.

The state government had also offered the mill tax breaks and exemptions from paying electricity duty for 10 years and reimbursement of power cost at Rs 3 per unit for three years.