Upgrades of two presses at Punjab Kesari Group in Jalandhar are part of growth plans for the northern Indian newspaper group.
QI Press Controls has been commissioned to install a total of 129 of its mRC+ cameras for colour and cut-off register on two press lines.
Growth plans for Punjab Kesari include additional editions for Delhi, Simla, Bathinda and Rohtak, with new print plants and an upgrade of print quality and capacity. Existing presses are being automated with motorisation, register controls and spray dampening.
Vice chairman and joint managing director Amit Chopra (pictured) says the group is working from an ideologically and technologically sophisticated vision: “Our business strategy keeps us in a profitable position and among the leaders in the newspaper industry,” he says.
A seven-tower Manugraph Cityline Express and a six-tower Ronald web press will be equipped with the 129 cameras, which are to be mounted directly after the last print couple, taking advantage of the ability to read from an unsupported web.
Chopra says the company had good reports from other QI users and liked the supplier’s “personal way of approaching customers”.
QI India managing director Vijay Pandya says the order is significant as the first big newspaper group in local language of the northern part of India. “It will help us to enter in other similar vernacular newspaper groups in that part of the country,” he says.
Punjab Kesari Group started in 1948 with the Urdu daily Hind Samachar, adding Hindi daily Punjab Kesari and Punjabi Daily Jag Bani in 1965 and 1978. Last August, they launched Hindi daily Navodaya Times from New Delhi.
The four established dailies have a combined circulation of around 1.15 million copies on weekdays and 1.2 million copies on Sundays.