Tamil Nadu government plans to invest around Rs 350 crore for the proposed expansion of Ariyalur cement plant to 1.5 million tonne a year from the current 500,000 tonne. The state government issued orders to appoint a project management consultant to increase the production of the plant.Besides this, the state government sanctioned Rs 165 crore to modernise the Alangulam cement plant. The government has also permitted TNPL to produce 600 tonnes of cement per day at an investment of Rs 67.46 crore from the wastage of lime clay and fly ash. The expansion of the state-run cement companies comes at a time when the southern cement market is showing some positive recovery. After reporting a negative growth of around 3.03 per cent in the first nine months of the current financial year, the southern market has shown some signs of recovery in the last quarter by reporting an 8.98 per cent growth.Meanwhile, TNPL has said that it will also make efforts to develop pulpwood plantation in about 1,000 acres in the effluent water-affected lands on the Noyyal river banks in Tirupur, Erode and Karur districts.