Apart from the Power sector, investments in fresh projects investment declined sharply across the major sectors in August 2009. But for the announcement of a couple of mega power projects, the total fresh investment announcements in the month would have been one of the lowest in recent times. In August 2009, ProjectsToday monitored 783 new projects entailing an investment of Rs 49,088 crore.

Among the major sectors, the highest decline was seen in the Manufacturing sector, where the quantum of fresh investment fell by 53 per cent on month-over-month basis. The Services and Infrastructure sector also saw fresh investment decline by 6 per cent. However, in the power sector, such investment in August increased by nearly five times from Rs 6,186 crore in July 2009 to Rs 30,221 crore. Three large power projects announced during August 2009, accounted for nearly 54 per cent of the total fresh investment announced across the country. They were

In addition to the above projects, Lanco Mahanadi Power's 1,320 MW coal based power unit in Maharashtra and Suryachakra Power Venture's 1,200 MW coal based power unit in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh were also involved in sizeable investments.

In all, the month of August saw announcement of 51 new power projects. Of which 27 were hydel power projects. On 12 August 2009, the Madhya Pradesh government invited tenders for developing 19 small scale hydro power projects across the state. NHPC announced six more hydel power projects to be located in Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh and Jharkhand.

Though the Manufacturing sector witnessed announcement of only 60 projects, 58 less when compared to the 118 startups seen in July 2009, there were three high ticket projects each entailing investment of over Rs 1,000 crore. They were

Jaiprakash Associates also announced setting up of a 2 mln tpa greenfield cement unit in North Cachar Hills district of Assam, entailing an investment of Rs 1,050 crore.

Despite registering a fall in number of new roadways, the sector saw NHAI taking up two large projects by inviting bids for them.

NHAI invited prequalification bids for following major projects:

The Construction sector witnessed 33 new commercial complexes including shopping malls, 13 hospitals and 10 hotels. Of the 13 hospitals, Narayana Hospitals' 'Narayana Hrudayalaya Health City' with a capacity of 2,000 beds in Mysore, Karnataka, was the most ambitious project. Three C Universal Developers' residential complex 'Lotus Boulevard' in joint venture with Red Fort Capital Advisors at Noida in Uttar Pradesh was the largest Real Estate project to be announced in August with an investment of Rs 1,600 crore. The project will be spread over 40 acres of land and will be implemented in 4-5 phases with total 3,000 residential flats.

Of the total projects announced during the month, 602 projects entailing a total investment of Rs 20,419 crore were by the State and Central government agencies. Private entities accounted for the balance 182 projects worth Rs 32,266 core