Located at Bhiwadi, the plant has been built at an investment of ₹ 1,000 crore and has a capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day

Saint-Gobain, one of the world leaders in building materials, has inaugurated the ‘World Glass Complex’ at Bhiwadi, Rajasthan at the hands of Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje.

“With an investment of over ₹ 1,000 crore, the World Glass Complex at Bhiwadi is Saint-Gobain’s pride as it is Saint-Gobain’s newest, India’s largest and world’s most modern manufacturing facility,” the company said issuing a statement.

The plant has a capacity to manufacture close to 1,000 tonnes 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.

The plant’s location is strategic, for the entire glass market of North India can be optimally serviced from Bhiwadi. Further, it being on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, gives it significant logistics advantages. “Truly, the Bhiwadi Plant will become Saint-Gobain’s gateway to further penetrate the North India market and to better serve its customers,” the statement adds.

“I am happy to note that ‘Make in India’ is the new direction of the Indian Government. As Saint-Gobain, we not only agree with this, but strongly support this initiative. In fact, this is our philosophy and, 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. And India has consistently encouraged and supported us – our products are well accepted; our businesses have leadership positions; the brand recall of Saint-Gobain in India is as good as that in France. Indeed, we are as much an Indian company as we are French. 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 & Development Centre in Chennai,” said Pierre-André de CHALENDAR, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Saint-Gobain.

“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,” informed B Santhanam, President Flat Glass South Asia, Malaysia and Egypt, Managing Director, SGGI Ltd.

Currently, Saint-Gobain Group operates in nine different businesses in India and Bhutan. We have 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. “India is fast developing as a key manufacturing hub for Value added products, which are widely exported to the Asia Pacific and Middle east regions,” said Anand Y Mahajan, General Delegate of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Spread over a campus of 136 acres and with a built-up area of 1.14 lac sq.m, the World Glass Complex is:

• Asia’s largest float glass manufacturing facility with a capacity to manufacture close to 1,000 tonnes of glass per day in the biggest dimensions of glass possible • Modern plant in which advanced robotic technology has been incorporated
• ‘Green’ manufacturing practices resulting in lower energy consumption compared to other existing glass manufacturing facilities
• ‘Green’ complex with a host of environmental measures deployed to promote sustainability.