A new print site for Times of India publisher Bennett Coleman & Co integrates a TKS pressline with Ferag mailroom at a site in Manesar, south of Gurgaon.

The print centre - which has been in preparation for more than three years - adds capacity in the Delhi national capital region, backing up the giant Sahibabad site.

With its 4x1 (double-width, one-around) press format, it will also ad flexibility to capacity in one of the country's fastest-growing areas.

The Times of India - the world's largest English-language newspaper - makes use of 14 of its own print centres and 28 contract printers, with a growing focus on 4x1 machinery. It was for this that manroland developed its 'made for India' double-width Cromoman press, already installed at several Bennett, Coleman sites.

In Manesar, however, the choice is for Japanese TKS in the form of a five-tower TKS Color Top 5100 UDI press with an economical 546mm cut-off, ordered in 2017 and installed in an innovative building with a sloping reel floor below the press units.

The Ferag conveyor and stacker combination includes a UTR conveyor and MultiStack high-performance compensating stackers, with the usual two MTS machines extended by a third to process pre-programmed odd bundles.

Prepress is Krause violet with Nela optical benders - mostly producing single broadsheet plates - and there is QI Press Controls' cut and colour registration. Soft proofing is also being installed, in line with print centres around the country.

UV curing on the top web - using IST's technology - adds impact and advertising options across eight pages... another initiative spanning many group sites.

The site makes a flexible contribution to the output of a group which publishes more than 7.5 million newspaper copies a day at 42 locations, as well as maintaining TV, radio and digital publishing operations.