The Hindu Business Line : Bridge & Roof in talks for jt venture projects

BRIDGE & Roof Co (I) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharat Yantra Nigam Ltd, a Central public sector unit, may join hands with other companies to bid in big infrastructure projects.

According to Mr Mukesh Jha, Director (Finance), the company is in talks with several organisations for such joint ventures.

"These joint ventures will vary from one case to case. We held some preliminary discussions only," he told newspersons on Tuesday.

In July, the Union Government carried out a financial restructuring of Bridge & Roof, which included conversion of the Government loan worth Rs 11.01 crore into equity and fresh infusion of funds.

"The Government has given us Rs 60 crore for purchasing modern equipment and machinery. Half of this amount will be treated as an equity and the rest will be treated as loan," said Mr P. K. Biswas, Managing Director.

According to him, the company plans to invest approximately Rs 105 crore on plant machinery in the next five years. Of this, Rs 45 crore will be invested in the current fiscal. The rest will be spread over the next four years.

In 2004-05, Bridge & Roof registered a turnover of Rs 466 crore, profit before tax of Rs 1.48 crore, and net profit of Rs 0.98 crore.

In the current fiscal, turnover is expected to increase to Rs 525 crore and profit before tax to Rs 5 crore.

"We hope to make Bridge & Roof a Rs 1,000-crore company within the next three years. Currently, we have Rs 1,000 crore worth of orders and the figure is expected to cross Rs 1,200 crore by the end of March 2006," Mr Biswas said. He added that subsequent to the financial restructuring, the net worth of Bridge & Roof has improved a lot.

It will make the company more eligible to participate in the bigger projects.

The current staff strength of Bridge & Roof is 1,230, of which 700 are officers. More than 500 officers are engineers, he added.

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