Coke to Build Bottling Plant in India

Coca-Cola Co. is planning to build India's largest greenfield bottling plant, estimated to cost US$9.35 million, government officials announced today.

"The plant will have a capacity of 600 bottles of soft drink and 300 bottles of mango juice per-minute," said Upendra Behera, managing director of Infrastructure Development Corp. of Orissa.

Coke said the plant, at Khurda in Orissa, would be ready by the year 2000.

"This will be Coca-Cola's seventh bottling plant in India," said Rahul Dhawan, Coca-Cola corporate communications director.

Coke's other bottling plants are in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Goa, Ghaziabad and Vijaywada. Another plant is almost completed at Jalpaiguri in the eastern state of West Bengal with 450 bottles per-minute capacity.