Ceramic Sanitaryware Manufacturing Facility

Project Overview

An Indian building products major and a European vitreous china ceramic sanitaryware technology partner engaged IMARC Engineering to establish a greenfield ceramic sanitaryware manufacturing facility at Bahadurgarh, Haryana. The project was structured against the Government of India's Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban 2.0 (PMAY-U 2.0), launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on 1 September 2024 with a target to provide affordable urban housing to one crore urban poor and middle-class families over a five-year implementation window through FY 2028-29, alongside the continuing Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban (PMAY-U) programme extended to 30 September 2026 for completion of the sanctioned housing pipeline.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs reporting confirms that as of 13 July 2026, combined PMAY-U and PMAY-U 2.0 sanctions had reached 127.68 lakh houses, with 99.07 lakh completed and 121.02 lakh grounded, establishing PMAY as one of the world's largest affordable housing programmes by volume.

The scheme framework is anchored on the Union Budget 2025-26 allocation of INR 19,794 Crore to the continuing PMAY-U scheme and INR 3,500 Crore to PMAY-U 2.0, with implementation across 4,618 Urban Local Bodies nationwide through the four verticals of Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC), Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP), Affordable Rental Housing (ARH), and Interest Subsidy Scheme (ISS). The Interest Subsidy Scheme provides a 4 percent subsidy on the first INR 8 lakh of home loan up to a maximum benefit of INR 1.8 lakh for eligible families.

As of the 6th Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee meeting on 23 February 2026, 96 percent of houses sanctioned under PMAY-U 2.0 had been allotted in the name of women. Complementary structural demand drivers include the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0, launched 1 October 2021 with a INR 1.41 lakh Crore outlay through FY 2025-26 focusing on complete faecal sludge and septage management, alongside the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0 for water and sewerage infrastructure.

The project involved establishing 24 lakh vitreous China ceramic sanitaryware pieces per annum of manufacturing capacity across three product families, 12 lakh water closets (comprising European water closets, Indian water closets, one-piece designs, and matched cisterns), 8 lakh wash basins (comprising pedestal, counter, table-top, and wall-hung variants), and 4 lakh urinals and associated fittings covering standard, premium, and export-grade variants under relevant BIS specifications alongside BIS Water Efficiency Rating and Ecomark certification. Site infrastructure was designed for Phase 2 expansion adding wall-hung and rimless smart water closet product lines for the premium urban residential and hospitality segment.

Client's Challenges

The client faced several specific challenges in establishing greenfield vitreous China ceramic sanitaryware manufacturing in India:

• Ceramic body and glaze formulation engineering: Engineering the vitreous China ceramic body formulation (comprising ball clay, kaolin, feldspar, quartz, and pyrophyllite in balanced proportions) alongside the matched glaze chemistry required for the dimensional stability, water absorption below 0.5 percent, and surface finish characteristics that define BIS IS 2556-compliant vitreous China sanitary appliances across the product portfolio.
• High-precision multi-piece slip casting: Engineering the high-pressure slip casting and traditional plaster mould casting infrastructure required for the complex three-dimensional geometry of water closets, wash basins, urinals, and cisterns with the associated demoulding, drying tunnel, and finishing operations required for the dimensional precision and glaze uniformity demanded by contemporary bathroom design standards.
• Tunnel kiln thermal engineering: Engineering the high-temperature tunnel kiln operation at 1200-1250 degrees Celsius firing temperature required for vitreous China maturation, with the associated fuel gas supply, thermal profile control, cooling zone design, and energy efficiency optimisation critical to both product quality and operating cost containment across the 20-hour firing cycle.
• BIS Water Efficiency Rating and Ecomark certification: Achieving BIS IS 2556 (vitreous China sanitary appliances) product certifications, alongside BIS Water Efficiency Rating for dual-flush water closets, and Ecomark environmental certification, critical credentials for PMAY-U 2.0 procurement participation and export market qualification.
• Multi-channel distribution complexity: Coordinating multi-channel distribution across the state housing board procurement channels for PMAY-U 2.0 institutional supply, the project sales channel for residential developer aggregators, the retail distribution channel for aftermarket demand, and the emerging Middle East and African export channels, each with distinct commercial, technical specification, and logistics requirements.
• Workforce build-up: Recruiting 340 personnel including ceramic materials engineers, kiln operations specialists, glaze chemists, quality technicians, and skilled ceramic finishing operators in the Bahadurgarh regional labour market that hosts the broader North Indian ceramic sanitaryware manufacturing ecosystem with access to Delhi-NCR technical talent.

What We Did

• Pre-Investment and Strategic Advisory

Our feasibility study evaluated four candidate Indian locations Bahadurgarh (Haryana), Bibinagar (Telangana), Kadi (Gujarat), and Sikandrabad (Uttar Pradesh) with Bahadurgarh selected on the strength of the established North Indian ceramic sanitaryware manufacturing ecosystem centred around Bahadurgarh providing supplier and technical talent depth, Delhi-NCR adjacency for time-sensitive project sales channel logistics and access to the largest concentration of Indian residential developers, established rail and road connectivity to the Northern, Western, and Central Indian markets alongside export connectivity through Mundra and Kandla ports, the Haryana Enterprises and Employment Policy incentive framework, and access to ceramic engineering talent from IIT Delhi ceramics programme and the surrounding technical education base.

CapEx planning of INR 296 Crore covered the raw material preparation and slip casting area, the drying and glazing hall, the tunnel kiln, the sorting and finishing area, the quality laboratory, the warehouse, and central utilities. Financial modelling demonstrated post-tax IRR of 24.2 percent at full ramp with a 5.0-year payback.

• Engineering and Design Services

IMARC designed a 28,000 sq.m built-up facility on a 16-acre plot comprising the raw material preparation area with dedicated ball mills, filter presses, and slip storage tanks for the vitreous china ceramic body preparation, the high-pressure slip casting and plaster mould casting hall organised with parallel casting stations for the water closet, wash basin, urinal, and cistern product families, the drying tunnel with controlled temperature and humidity profile for progressive moisture removal, the glazing hall with spray glazing booth and glaze bath infrastructure, the tunnel kiln engineered for 1200-1250 degrees Celsius firing temperature across the 20-hour firing cycle, the sorting, inspection, and finishing area covering visual inspection, functional testing, and packaging, the quality laboratory covering water absorption testing, load bearing testing, and BIS compliance verification infrastructure, the raw material and finished goods warehouse, and central utilities.

Process utility design covered 3.6 MW grid demand supplemented by a 1 MW captive rooftop solar array, dedicated natural gas supply for the tunnel kiln alongside select biomass-fuel co-firing capability for reduced carbon intensity, dedicated compressed air supply for spray glazing operations, integrated MES for lot-level traceability aligned with BIS documentation, and heavy-haul outbound logistics infrastructure for oversized sanitaryware despatch.

• Procurement and Supply Chain Support

We executed a multi-geography procurement programme across 38 critical vendors. High-pressure slip casting infrastructure and automated demoulding equipment was sourced from established European specialists with documented sanitaryware industry references from Italian and Spanish sanitaryware clusters. Tunnel kiln engineering and installation was contracted to established European kiln specialists with proven vitreous china sanitaryware deployment references.

Spray glazing booth and glazing infrastructure was sourced from a combination of European and Chinese specialists. Quality laboratory equipment covering water absorption testing, load bearing testing, and BIS compliance verification was sourced from European and Indian specialty testing equipment specialists. Raw material sourcing was structured to maximise Domestic Content: ball clay from qualified Indian producers in the Bikaner and Rajmahal ceramic clay belts, kaolin from Kerala and Karnataka kaolin producers, feldspar and quartz from Rajasthan mineral producers, pyrophyllite from Madhya Pradesh producers, natural gas from the local city gas distribution network, and specialty glaze pigments and colouring oxides from a combination of Indian and select international suppliers. Documented Domestic Content reached 88 percent in Year-1 operations and 94 percent in Year-2 as the Indian raw material supplier ecosystem developed.

• Project Execution and Site Management

Our turnkey project management delivered 20 months from groundbreaking to first commercial sanitaryware despatch, coordinating civil construction, mechanical and electrical erection, tunnel kiln installation and commissioning, equipment integration, and phased commissioning across the raw material preparation, casting, drying, glazing, firing, and finishing zones.

Phased commissioning ran the raw material preparation area first (as the critical-path bottleneck for first ceramic body availability), followed by the slip casting and drying hall, then the glazing infrastructure, then the tunnel kiln with progressive thermal profile stabilisation and first vitreous China sanitaryware firing in month 17, and finally the sorting, finishing, and quality laboratory with BIS IS 2556 certification campaigns across the product portfolio.

Multi-vendor coordination across European, Chinese, and Indian contractors required a 14-strong owner's engineering team supplemented by 6 European resident engineers from the ceramic sanitaryware technology partner during the tunnel kiln commissioning and initial product qualification phases.

• Compliance, Quality and Sustainability

IMARC led certification readiness across BIS IS 2556 (vitreous china sanitary appliances) verified across the product portfolio in Year-1 of operations BIS Water Efficiency Rating for dual-flush water closet product families, Ecomark environmental certification, Bureau of Energy Efficiency Star Labeling for water-saving sanitaryware, Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) local content certification, and ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 45001:2018, and ISO 50001:2018 management system certifications.

Environmental compliance covered Haryana State Pollution Control Board Consent to Establish and Operate, Hazardous Waste Authorisation for tunnel kiln residues and glaze chemistry management, and Extended Producer Responsibility commitments for end-of-life packaging material recovery under the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2022 framework.

The facility achieved IGBC Gold certification through 1 MW captive rooftop solar covering approximately 21.7 percent of facility daytime energy demand, biomass fuel co-firing in the tunnel kiln covering approximately 18 percent of kiln thermal energy demand, heat recovery from the tunnel kiln cooling zone, variable-frequency drives across HVAC and process pump systems, and 20 percent lower facility energy intensity versus the Southeast Asian ceramic sanitaryware manufacturing industry benchmark.

Final Results

Operational Performance

The facility achieved mechanical completion in 20 months with first commercial sanitaryware despatch in month 21. Full 24 lakh sanitaryware pieces per annum nameplate capacity was reached at 76 percent utilisation (equivalent to 18.24 lakh sanitaryware pieces in Year-2, comprising approximately 9.12 lakh water closets, 6.08 lakh wash basins, and 3.04 lakh urinals and associated fittings) with sustained first-pass yield of 92 percent across the product portfolio.

BIS IS 2556 certifications were completed in Year-1, BIS Water Efficiency Rating was secured for the dual-flush water closet product families, Ecomark environmental certification was completed, and successful supplier qualification audits were passed with three state housing boards under PMAY-U 2.0 procurement, four residential developer project accounts, one retail sanitaryware aggregator, and one export customer across the first operational year.

Financial Outcomes

Final CapEx of INR 280 Crore delivered 7.2 percent savings against the INR 302 Crore budget through optimised civil packaging, disciplined Indian-fabrication leverage across the structural and process infrastructure scope, adjacency benefits from the established North Indian ceramic sanitaryware ecosystem for auxiliary supplier ecosystem, coordinated multi-vendor procurement, and Haryana Enterprises and Employment Policy incentive framework benefits.

Year-2 revenue of INR 445 Crore was generated at an EBITDA margin of 14 percent, consistent with established Indian ceramic sanitaryware sector reporting, supported by the PMAY-U 2.0 institutional demand pipeline (with combined PMAY sanctions of 127.68 lakh houses driving structural sanitaryware demand) alongside the growing project sales channel demand from Indian residential developers and the emerging Middle East and African export order book.

Market Access

Long-term supply commitments were signed with three state housing boards under the PMAY-U 2.0 institutional procurement channel covering committed annual sanitaryware offtake for the state affordable housing project pipelines across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, four residential developer project accounts covering committed offtake for the group housing project pipelines across the Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and Bengaluru urban belts, one retail sanitaryware aggregator covering aftermarket distribution across the Northern and Western Indian retail network, and one export customer covering committed sanitaryware supply to a Middle East distribution partner.

The facility served approximately 456,000 homes in Year-2 output (based on the standard four-piece sanitaryware configuration per household), directly contributing to the PMAY-U 2.0 physical housing delivery pipeline.

Sustainability Impact

Our integrated design, combining 1 MW captive rooftop solar covering approximately 21.7 percent of facility daytime energy demand, biomass fuel co-firing in the tunnel kiln covering approximately 18 percent of kiln thermal energy demand, heat recovery from the tunnel kiln cooling zone, variable-frequency drives across HVAC and process pump systems, and LED lighting throughout, achieves 20 percent lower facility energy intensity versus the Southeast Asian ceramic sanitaryware manufacturing industry benchmark.

Process water reclamation reaches 72 percent through closed-loop slip preparation water recovery and glazing operation water recirculation. The BIS Water Efficiency Rated dual-flush water closet product families produced by the facility deliver structural water-consumption reduction versus conventional single-flush water closets, with approximately 4.5-litre and 3-litre flush volumes for solid and liquid waste versus the conventional 10-litre single flush, directly supporting the water-conservation objectives of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0 and Jal Jeevan Mission frameworks. The facility holds IGBC Gold certification and operates end-of-life ceramic and packaging material recovery partnerships.

Strategic Impact

The project established a meaningful greenfield ceramic sanitaryware manufacturing capability under the PMAY-U 2.0 framework, positioning the client across the structural Indian affordable-housing demand trajectory, with the PMAY-U 2.0 one crore urban homes target through FY 2028-29 alongside the continuing PMAY-U completion pipeline through 30 September 2026, the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0 sanitation infrastructure demand pull, the AMRUT 2.0 water and sewerage infrastructure programme, and the growing Indian residential developer group-housing project demand across the top urban markets.

Year-2 revenue of INR 445 Crore, BIS product certifications and Water Efficiency Rating across the portfolio, three state housing board supply commitments, four residential developer project accounts, and the Middle East export entry led the client to approve Phase 2 expansion comprising wall-hung and rimless smart water closet product lines for the premium urban residential and hospitality segment.

IMARC Engineering's end-to-end EPCM advisory, combining ceramic body and glaze engineering, tunnel kiln design, PMAY-U 2.0 procurement navigation, BIS and BEE certification pathway support, and disciplined multi-vendor execution, enabled the client to anchor a strategically important Indian industrial asset in a sector positioned at the intersection of India's largest-ever affordable housing programme delivery pipeline and the accelerating urban sanitation modernisation trajectory.