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Mamuni Das

New Delhi , April 7

PIPAVAV Rail Corporation Ltd (PRCL) is in the process of refinancing its debt of Rs 173 crore. The refinanced debt comes in the form of delayed repayment of loan and reduced interest rates.

The company was supposed to start paying off its debt from this month itself. Now, it has received a moratorium on payment of interest and principal amount for two years. "We now have to start paying off our debt from April 2007 instead of April 2005," said Mr RC Dubey, Managing Director, PRCL.

PRCL had raised its debt from seven parties that included banks and other financial institutions, with Union Bank of India (UBI) being the lead banker. The debt was raised at a "reducing interest rate of 11 per cent".

"The company now has to repay the debt at 8 per cent rate of interest (reducing). This results in our annual interest payments becoming cheaper by Rs 4 crore every year for the nine-year duration, " added Mr Dubey, adding that the company's interest outgo will be down to Rs 17 crore from the earlier level of Rs 21 crore per annum.

PRCL has raised Rs 50 crore from UBI, Rs 30 crore from Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), Rs 25 crore from Central Bank of India, Rs 24 crore each from Bank of Maharashtra and Housing Development Corporation of India and Rs 10 crore each from General Insurance Company and New India Assurance Company. PRCL had raised a short-term working capital loan of Rs 15 crore that was paid off this March.

The company has an equity component of Rs 196 crore, with Indian Railways and Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd putting in Rs 98 crore each.

PRCL has already received "in principle approvals" for the refinance scheme from all the institutions and has received the renewed papers from UBI and IRFC.

On being asked when PRCL plans to start its container movement operations following its approval from the Ministry, Mr Dubey said that the company's licence to offer container movement has been "pended" by the Railway Ministry.

PRCL has built a broad gauge rail line between Pipavav and Surendranagar in Gujarat. It has applied for starting its container operations on rail.

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