The Hindu Business Line : Subhash Projects bidding for more road projects

Subhash Projects & Marketing Ltd, which is mostly engaged in the power and water related projects within the infrastructure sector, is aggressively bidding for road projects.

According to Mr S.C. Sethi, Vice-Chairman, the company is building a road in North Bengal, which is a part of the Golden Quadrangle project undertaken by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)."It is a cash contract project but we are currently bidding in a number of BOOT (build own operate transfer) projects and most of these are NHAI projects," Mr Sethi told Business Line.

The company is currently having a healthy order book which is worth more than Rs 2,000 crore and the projects would be completed within the next 30 months.

"The orders have come mostly from the power and water sectors and their shares are almost equal. Infrastructure, in terms of road, is almost negligible. The North Bengal road project is worth about Rs 80 crore," he said.

Subhash Projects is likely to register a turnover of Rs 700 crore for the year ended March 31, 2006. For 2006-07, Mr Sethi said the target is to make it a Rs 1,000-crore company.

Power trading

Meanwhile, Subhash Projects through one of its associate companies has started power trading business. The name of the company is Subhash Kabini Power Corporation Ltd and it is based in Karnataka.

This company is currently running a 20-MW hydel power plant on a BOT (build own transfer) basis in Karnataka. In January this year, Subhash Kabini got the power trading licence.

According to Mr G.S. Gupta, CEO of Subhash Kabini, the company has started power trading about three months ago. "We are currently buying 28 MW from an Andhra Pradesh-based ferro alloy plant. It is a captive power plant," he said.

Subhash Kabini is, however, selling its own power generated at the hydel power plant to the Karnataka state grid. The company is negotiating with several other captive producers for buying their power.

"I am going all over the country and talking with several companies. It is a competitive market. We are trying hard but it would not be fair on my part to disclose their names," Mr Gupta said.

Carbon credit

The Kabini Hydro Electric Power Plant is registered at the UN panel as a clean development mechanism project. It is expected to generate about 45,000 certified emission reduction units per annum.

"We have not got the credits but would get it soon. However, we may not sell the credits at the moment as the global carbon credit prices are down. We would wait for an opportune moment," Mr Gupta said.