The Videocon Group is planning to start a 500MW power plant in its homeland and is looking for suitable land as well as a coal-transportation solution

Videocon Group, a consumer electronics giant, is planning to set up a 500MW power plant in its homeland, Maharashtra. It also expects to achieve financial closure for its Gujarat-based 1,200MW power plant by end-March.

“We are planning a power plant in Maharashtra,” said SM Hegde, director, Videocon Group. While declining to divulge further details, Mr Hegde said, “The exact location has not been finalised as land acquisition is the main concern for any power project, so we have to look into the land availability issue and other issues like coal transportation.”

Speaking about the group’s Gujarat-based 1,200MW power project, he said, “The financial closure for the first phase of 600MW has been achieved; the second phase’s financial closure is getting completed. After financial closure, power projects take another three and a half years to be commissioned,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Videocon Group is still awaiting financial closure for its 1,000MW power plant located in Chhattisgarh. The project sanctioned by the state government is still in the clearance phase which involves environmental clearances and coal-linkage issues.

Coal linkages for the group’s Gujarat project have been secured through coal imports from Indonesia. However, coal supply to the power plant planned in Chhattisgarh will be sourced from coal blocks in that area.

The group also has plans for a power plant in West Bengal. “Once the financial closure for the Chhattisgarh project is completed, we will move on to the other projects like the one in West Bengal,” added Mr Hegde.
 

The joint venture project, launched in 2006, has finally received necessary permissions, but the JV partners are not sure about the future of residential space in the planned construction

Two years after launching an ambitious plan, Hyderabad-based ‘Jubilee Hills Landmark Projects’ will finally see the light of day. ICICI Venture Funds Management Co Ltd and Nagarjuna Construction Co Ltd, the joint venture partners, have decided to start the construction of the project within the next three months.

“We have got most of the permissions in place and we will be commencing construction in the next three months,” said Sanjeev Dasgupta, president for real estate, ICICI Venture.

The project was launched three years ago. However, due to the slowdown in the realty market, the joint venture partners were not sure about the viability of such a high-end project. The civic authorities were also not very co-operative while giving the necessary permissions.

“Hyderabad has gone through lot of changes in the last eighteen months in its development regulation which has blocked most of the approvals for new developments,” said Mr Dasgupta.

The project is coming up at a prime location, near the 350-acre KBR Park in Hyderabad, with a five-star deluxe hotel, service apartments, retail showrooms and premium residential space. This project was supposed to start in 2006 but could not take off as the group failed to get the required permissions in place.

Again, due to lacklustre demand for high-end projects during the past one year in Hyderabad, most developers stayed away from such projects. During the last year, the city witnessed sales of only affordable homes or those in the price range of Rs15 lakh to Rs30 lakh, said an industry source.

ICICI Venture and Nagarjuna are planning to start with the hotels, which will include retail showrooms. However, the partners are still not sure about developing the premium residential space, which they had planned. They want to wait and watch the market for some time before taking action on the residential project.
 

The move is expected to reduce litigation from those left out, expediting projects. Besides, more bidders may get better financial offers for the government

The Indian government has removed the cap on the number of players who can participate in financial bidding for port-expansion projects under public private partnership (PPP) to minimise litigation and get better returns, reports PTI.

Until now, the government allowed only five technically-qualified players to participate in financial bidding, which led to litigation and slowed down projects, a shipping ministry official said.

"The government has now done away with the cap. The move is expected to reduce litigation from those left out, expediting projects. Besides, more bidders may get better financial offers for the government," the official said.

"Now, all technically-qualified players will be allowed to make financial bids," he added.

The shipping ministry's decision follows a similar move last year by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to remove the limit on the number of private players who could bid for PPP road projects.

The official said that the government will award six port projects by March-end, in addition to the seven that have been already given out so far this fiscal.

"Besides, the government will invite RFPs (request for proposals) for eight more PPP projects by March end," the official said.

The government has planned to undertake 276 capacity expansion projects at various ports across the country, entailing investments of around Rs55,000 crore under the National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP).

Under the NMDP, the total capacity of the 12 major ports in the country is envisaged to go up to 1,016 million tonnes (MT) by 2011-12 from 570MT at present. Besides the major ports, India has around 200 minor ports.