Construction Industry News
Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL), the firm of the Vedanta Group, the world's second-largest manufacturer of the metal, plans to invest more than $1 billion (Rs 82.70 billion) to switch from diesel-operated mining vehicles to battery-operated vehicles and also to fully convert to a green energy user in the next five years.
The Udaipur-based company, which is also the only producer of silver and the largest producer of zinc and lead in the country, is currently running four of its 900 mining vehicles on battery trials.
The company, with an annual production of 1 million tonnes of zinc compared to 100,000 tonnes when it was privatized in 2002, also expects stable demand in the March quarter despite growing fears of a global recession, chief executive Arun Misra said in the statement.
The government still owns 29% of the money-rich HZL and has three board members. On this, Misra said that he had recently met with government officials in New Delhi and that the full divestment could be done soon.
On the commitment to be net carbon neutral by 2050, he said the company has signed a power purchase agreement to purchase up to 200 MW of renewable energy, avoiding 1.2 million tons of carbon emissions.
