Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje recently inaugurated Saint-Gobain’s World Glass Complex at Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. With an investment of over $185 million, the complex is India’s largest and the world’s most modern manufacturing facility.
The plant has a capacity to manufacture close to 1,000 tons of glass per day and is a fully automated, futuristic (with state-of-the-art robotics), integrated glass facility. The plant features several innovative features that are being deployed for the first time in the Indian glass industry.
Spread over a campus of 136 acres and with a built-up area of 1.14 lac sq. metres, the World Glass Complex is Asia’s largest float glass manufacturing facility with a capacity to manufacture close to 1,000 tons of glass per day in the biggest dimensions of glass possible. Other features include advanced robotic technology, green manufacturing practices resulting in lower energy consumption and a green complex with a host of environmental measures to promote sustainability.
According to Saint-Gobain, the world leader in building materials, the plant’s location is strategic, for the entire glass market of North India can be optimally serviced from Bhiwadi. Further, being located on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor gives it significant logistics advantages.
“From the beginning, we have invested in setting up world-class and world-scale local manufacturing, with the result that about 90 per cent of the group’s sale in India is locally manufactured. In India, we have gone beyond manufacturing. We have invested in IT development centre, in engineering services, in a sourcing office and, more important, in 2013, we created Saint-Gobain Research India to build the group’s 7th transversal global research and development centre in Chennai,” said Pierre-André de Chalendar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Paris-based Saint-Gobain.
B. Santhanam, President, Flat Glass – South Asia, Malaysia and Egypt, and Managing Director, Saint-Gobain Glass India Ltd, noted: “We strongly believe in India’s future and have consistently invested ahead of time in capacity, capability and technology. The Bhiwadi facility, which is Saint-Gobain’s newest and most modern float glass plant, will accelerate Saint-Gobain’s momentum in realising its vision of being the clear choice for glass solutions in India and the adjoining region.”
Currently, Saint-Gobain Group operates in nine different businesses in India and Bhutan. It has a strong presence and leadership positions in glass and glass solutions, automotive glass, gypsum plasterboard and plasters, industrial mortars, abrasives, fused and high-performance refractories, silicon carbide and performance plastics.
