The month of June 2007 saw private companies announcing a total of 418 new projects, across various sectors like Textiles, Cement, Steel and Thermal Power. Looking at the bigger sphere of activities, a total of 671 new projects worth Rs.18,674 crore were monitered by ProjectsToday.

Of the 671 projects, Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd's., (RRVUNL) Rs.4,600 crore Kali Sindh power project, was the largest. It involves setting up a 2 X 500 MW coal based power unit near Kali Sindh river in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan. The Nigam expects to receive a letter of award by February 2008 and attain financial closure by end-June 2007.

Vikash Metal & Power Ltd's Rs.2,500 crore thermal power project was the largest private sector project to be announced in June 2007. The steel company proposes to set up a 500 MW (2x250 MW) thermal based power unit at Barauni in Begusarai district of Bihar. On 16 June 2007, the company signed an MoU with Bihar State Electricity Board to execute the project. The company will gradually increase the plant's capacity to 2,000 MW.

On 07 June 2007, the company board of PSU oil major, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), approved the company's plan to develop B-Cluster marginal gas fields (B-46, B-48, B-105 and B-188) in North West Mumbai. ONGC intends to spend around Rs.1800 crore by 2010.

Among the 20 new steel projects announced in the month, three were large sized projects. MSP Steel & Power plans to expand capacity of its existing steel unit at Jamgaon in Chhattisgarh. The Rs.850 crore project, has received approvals from the State government and is expected to be completed within the next two years. The second large project was Meridian Steel & Power's 0.5 million tpa pig iron unit worth Rs.500 crore, in Midnapore district of West Bengal. The third being Sona Alloy's 3 lakh tpa mild steel ingots and cold rolling mill worthRs.350 crore, at Lonand in Maharashtra.

Flow of investments by States indicates, Rajasthan accounted for around onefourth of the total planned investment in June 2007, owing to the Kali Sind thermal power project. Chhattisgarh, on the other hand signed two MoUs this month. One being a steel MoU with MSP Steel and the other was signed with GMR Energy for implementation, operation and maintenance of a 1,000 MW new coal based thermal power unit in Chhattisgarh. The State also cleared SLB Energy Pvt. Ltd's proposal for a 250 MW thermal power project at Katghora in Korba district.

In a major diversification move, the Andhra Pradesh based sugar company - Delta Sugars, announced its intention to set up a 1 million tpa cement unit in the state. The company is keen to commence project work by June 2008 and commission the plant by December 2010. Almost half of the Rs.400 crore investment required, would be met through internal accruals and the balance would be sourced from banks and financial institutions.

The services and infrastructure sector saw 492 new projects being announced in June 2007. Majority of these projects were in the Real Estates, Roadways and Community Services sector.

On 22 June 2007, Genpact India signed an MoU with Andhra Pradesh government to set up an IT special economic zone (SEZ) at Shamirpet in Andhra Pradesh. Genpact will invest around Rs.250 crore for Phase I of the project.

In the Electricity sector, NTPC invited bids to set up a 4,000 MW Marakkanam super thermal power unit in Viluppuram district of Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu Electricity Board announced its plan to set up a 1,600 MW (2x800 MW) coal based thermal power unit at Udangudi in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu. In the private sector, Gujarat Adani Energy published its intention to set up a 2,640 MW thermal based power unit at Tiroda Industrial Area, Eastern Vidarbha's in Gondia district of Maharashtra. In the Construction sector, around 30 new commercial complexes and shopping malls were announced across the country. In addition, ProjectsToday also collected information on 159 real estate projects at different stages of development. The major project announced in the Real Estate sector, was SRK Construction's township project at Kochi in Kerala.

During July 2007, information on four new SEZs were gathered by ProjectsToday. These include the proposal of Parsvnath Developers' biotechnology and pharma special economic zone (SEZ) in Hyderabad district of Andhra Pradesh with an investment of Rs.400 crore. Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali Urban Development Authority's IT/ITES SEZ at near Vijayawada in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, Mantri Developers' IT/ITES SEZ at Nagpur in Maharashtra and D S Kulkarni Developers' multi-services special economic zone (SEZ) at Fursungi in Pune district of Maharashtra.