The Hindu goes green - Coimbatore's award winning plant

Kasturi & Sons Limited owns The Hindu, among other publications like BusinessLine and now The Hindu in Tamil. The company, which has printing units in multiple centres like Chennai and Hyderabad, has one of its largest facilities in Coimbatore, with a high-speed, double-width press

Krishna Karthick is the assistant engineer who mans the CTP division at The Hindu which includes two Agfa Advantage platesetters

The Mitsubishi DiamondSpirit 4x1 coldset press in Coimbatore which produces 133lpi on imported newsprint. The highlights are: delta values under 2 - and dot gain of 23%

Mitsubishi's DiamondSpirit prints at 75,000cph with a 546mm cut- and a web width of 1397mm

The DiamondSpirit with three reel stands can print 24 pages in broadsheet with 16 pages colour

The press is configured with two 4/4 tower printing units and one 1/1 printing unit; plus one 2:2 double rotary folder

The press is operated by the MHI press control system with automated features that includes press pre-setting, ink pre-setting with CTP interface, colour register control and dual web tension control

The ink densities that have been achieved are: CMY --- all three solid densities are 0.9; whereas it is 1.10 for Black

The Ferag mailroom is the backbone of the plant. And services more than two-lakh copies during night production

The Ferag system helps with editions that reach out to districts like Coimbatore, Tirupur, Nilgiris, Erode and Salem

Various editions like BusinessLine; Tamil (Coimbatore City and Salem); and The Hindu (Coimbatore City and Salem). All printed between 10pm to 2.30am

The campus is designed to harvest rain water by providing a harvesting pit at every five metres around the building. The road around the building were laid with paver blocks, which allows the water to seep into the ground

The Hindu has an open well which absorbs the excess water through a filtering chamber. By this, rain water is prevented from going to the road side

The Hindu has regulated the water supply valves at the overhead tanks. Now, the overhead tank has two main valves, five circuit valves and 20 distribution valves

Note the ergonomic design of the water piping work. This means, minimum bends in the piping network and also control valves at every point. Therefore, repair work can be done with zero leaks

Before this system, The Hindu used to spend 20,000 litres per day. Now it is 12,000 litres a day. This entails 40% saving on both water and power consumption

A dust collector has been installed in the press that collects the fine dust occurring at the spot where the paper shearing is done

Regular floor maintenance and cleaning. Interestingly, The Hindu boasts of 0.78% web break. And so, in the last 550 days, 504 days ran without any stoppages. That is around 92% of the days.

A green effort has been the installation of AHU (Air Handling Units). The plant does not have ACs installed in the press hall and mail room

The AHU (Air Handling Units) is a device used to suck the atmospheric air and filter it; and circulate the air inside the press hall

In the pressroom, to get maximum illumination, all tubes are cleaned with wash once in three months. All tube fitting shades are cleaned with wash as well

W MHL street lightings were used initially. All these have been replaced with 23 LED lights (160W). Plus there is a lightening arrester (in the pix)

Efficient lighting in the mailroom segment which ensures 2737.5 units per year is saved. This reduces 2190 kg emission of CO2 annually

The Hindu team has converted three scrap AC outdoor units and three exhaust fans into main cooler fans. The exhaust fan maintains cooling

Modified AC condenser unit which functions as a fan

In the building design, the plant has long glass windows in the machine room, reel godown and corridors which ensure natural light inside the press hall. During day hours, the plant uses only 50% of light energy

Hindu has a roller wash for press use. Also there is a separate auto blanket cleaning system by which the blankets are cleaned with the programs of water and roller wash cycles

The staff is provided with a hand glove, mask and an ear muff to avoid chemical reaction, air pollution and sound pollution

The Hindu power back up. The stats are impressive. Electricity savings is 35% of the annual energy cost; Water savings is 28,58,01,462 litres; and CO2 emission reduction is 73,35,834 kg

A variety of flora and fauna in the campus. Now every staff will plant two trees in the campus and nurture it

Flowers in full blossom. The Arali plant shows-off its flowering. This plant has the capability to absorb carbon dioxide

The Hindu arranged fire safety mock drills conducted by the District Fire Service department

The Fire Service department demonstrated fire safety techniques, first aid techniques, and emergency situation handling techniques to all the staff members

Nearly 80% of the annual budget is invested in newsprint. The Hindu used 45gsm newsprint and has started using 42gsm newsprint

R Senthilkanth, the senior engineer of printing at The Hindu, says, "As of now 76% of the newsprint used in the Coimbatore press is of the recycled type"

The Hindu printed the IFRA quality target cuboid, once a month for three months. Printed copies were sent to Germany where experts evaluated them for quality and visual impact. The base standard IFRA follows is the ISO 12647-3, which specifies quality levels for printing materials and processes

All the editions which are published in the night shift at The Hindu plant. It can print 24 pages in broadsheet with 16 pages colour. It is configured with two 4/4 tower printing units and one 1/1 printing unit; one 2:2 double rotary folder; and three reel stands