Valaichchenai Paper Mill is a

state-owned State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, property, or enterprise by the national government of a country or state, or a public body representing a community, as opposed to ...

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt ...

located in the town of

Valaichchenai Valaichchenai ( ''Valaichchenai''; ''waalasena / Valaichchena'') is a town in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. It could also be spelled as Valaichenai or Valachchenai. The world-famous Pasikudah Beach is located about 3 km east of Valaic ...

Batticaloa District Batticaloa District ( ; ) is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a District Secretary (previously known as a Government A ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. It is considered that this mill is the first paper factory established in

History

Valaichchenai paper mill was established in 1955 with a total investment of about 32 million rupees and it was commissioned for commercial operation in 1956. In 1958 it was renamed as Eastern Paper Mills Corporation. At that time this paper mill was considered as the biggest factory in the Eastern province, especially in the Batticaloa district. In the period of 1970s, the mill had around 3,000 employees. In 1976 it became state-owned and then run as a state venture. With the expansion programme, carried out by the funds generated from the Valaichchennai, a second paper mill was established at

Embilipitiya Embilipitiya is a town, governed by an urban council, in Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka. Overview In the 1970s it was a small town with two or three small boutiques. Under the Udawalawe development project, Embilipitiya gr ...

in 1976. These two State corporations satisfied 70% of the total paper demand of the country. The name of the Eastern Paper Mills Corporation was subsequently changed to the National Paper Corporation (NPL). With the escalation of the Sri Lankan Civil War during the 1990s in the Eastern province, the government implemented new changes in the market policies with regard to the import of paper. That directly caused industrial difficulties for the Paper Corporation and also resulted in the lowering of production levels at the paper mill drastically in the latter part of the 1990s. It was then largely converted into a waste paper recycling centre with a newly established network of collecting sub-centres. As time passed, production operations at the paper mill were disrupted gradually with the reasons of bad financial situation and lack of experienced staff.

Present

After the defeat of

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam ...

, the government recommenced the operations of the Valaichchenai paper mill again, but which is now on a very low profile.

References

External links

National Paper Company Limited
{{authority control 1955 establishments in Ceylon Buildings and structures in Batticaloa District Government-owned companies of Sri Lanka Pulp and paper mills

History

Present

See also

References

External links