Finolex Cables' plan of expanding its optical fibre division is progressing as per schedule. Civil construction work has been completed and erection of support infrastructure for the first phase is in place. Machinery installation work is currently on. In the first phase, 1.2-million fibre km capacity per annum would be added in stage I and an additional 1.2 million fibre km capacity would be added in stage II. Trial run of stage I is expected to commence by September-October 2002. The company would be incurring a capex of Rs 125 crore in the first phase. The company also has plans to increase its capacity to 5 million fibre km in the second phase.
Earlier, a separate company, Finolex Technologies Ltd, handled Finolex Cables' optical fibre business. The company was, however, merged with Finolex Cables in April 2001. Finolex Technologies was previously known as Lucent Technologies Finolex Ltd, a 51:49 joint venture between Lucent Technologies and Finolex Cables. But, in 2000, Lucent Technologies pulled out of the JV and divested its stake in favour of Finolex group.
