Fresh investment on an ascent
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Visible surge in investment intentions in the Services & Utilities and Power sectors (both in terms of number as well as investment proposed) pumped in new life in August 2010 as fresh investments experienced an upward trend. The new project investment which has been experiencing lull for the past two months saw 786 startups worth Rs 26,308 crore in August 2010. As compared to July 2010, wherein 730 startups worth Rs 20,792 crore were announced, investment in August witnessed a surge of 27 per cent on month on month basis. Aided by this robust growth, the aggregate fresh investment announced in the first five months (April - Aug 2010) of the current fiscal also posted a positive growth of 2.4 per cent.
The Services and Utilities sector, where major chunk of investment is done by the public sector, saw eight per cent rise in the number of startups and a massive 65 per cent rise in fresh investment. In August 2010, 562 new startups were announced at an outlay of Rs 10,897 crore, as compared to 518 new projects worth Rs 6,616 crore announced in July 2010 in the sector. Some of the big ticket investments have been announced in the Railways and Real Estate sector.
Of the three new projects announced in the Railways sector, a Rs 2,619 crore Metro Rail (Joka- BBD Bagh, West Bengal) Project of Rail Vikas Nigam was the largest.
In the Real Estate sector, Supertech, a Noida based construction company, announced four residential projects in Uttar Pradesh. The company plans to develop mini township project - Eco Village II - with 10,000 flats in Sector 1 of Noida and an affordable housing project christened 'Cape Town' at Sector-74 of Noida in Uttar Pradesh. The Essar Group, which owns one of the largest petroleum refineries at Vadinar, Gujarat, announced its intentions to set up an integrated township in Jamnagar district of Gujarat at an outlay of Rs 2,500 crore.
Though not many large new projects were seen in the Roadways sector, the PWD, Maharashtra's Rs 216-crore four-laning of Hadapsar-Saswad-Belsar phata and Belha-Pabal-Urali-Kanchan-Jejuri-Nira Roads at Purandhar taluka in Pune district of Maharashtra and the PWD, Bihar's Rs 313.6 crore road upgradation projects were notable ones.
Though 53 new power projects (comprising 30 thermal, five hydel and 18 non-conventional projects) were announced in August 2010 as compared to the 56 projects announced in July, the investment envisaged therein shot up by 27 per cent to Rs 5,767 crore from Rs 4,537 crore in July 2010. While most of these projects are in planning stage, two have entered the execution stage. They are Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers Company's 33 MW gas based power unit in Bharuch district of Gujarat and VICS Industries' expansion of captive gas based power unit capacity from 8.5 MW to 19 MW at Perikegudem in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.
Other large power projects (where individual costs have not been firmed up at the time of announcement) announced in August 2010 were:
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A 2,000 MW coal based power unit by Neyveli Lignite Corporation in JV with Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam in Kanpur (Nagar) district of Uttar Pradesh
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A 1,600 MW (2 x 800 MW) coal based super critical power unit of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board in ash dyke of NCTPS (Kattupalli) at Ennore Multi-Product SEZ in Chennai district of Tamil Nadu
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A 1,320 MW (2 x 660 MW) Pathadi coal power station (Unit 5 and 6) of Lanco Amarkantak Power in Korba district of Chhattisgarh
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A 1,320 MW (2 x 660 MW) supercritical coal based power unit - 3 & 4 by Udupi Power Corporation, near to the existing units in Udupi district of Karnataka
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The Hospital sector cornered Rs 441 crore of fresh investment during August 2010 as compared to Rs 139 crore in July 2010. The Andhra Pradesh Health and Medical Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation decided to take up upgradation of nine maternity hospitals in the state. This includes upgradation of Niloufer Hospital in Hyderabad with a capacity of 450 beds and construction of 100-bed hospital at Patancheru in Medak district.
In the Hotels sector, the Tata Group is taking up two projects under its brand Vivanta in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and upgradation of Taj Fisherman's Cove and Taj Coromandel in Tamil Nadu.
Fresh investment announcements in the Manufacturing sector remained more or less at July 2010 levels. Among the 156 new projects, a Rs 1,800 crore Tractors project of Mahindra & Mahindra; a Rs 1,500 crore, LCD Plasma TV Sets Project of Videocon Industries and a Rs 1,000 crore Ferro Alloys project of Tata Steel were the mega projects seen in this sector.
The Mining sector saw about two-fold increase in the fresh investment announcements. The Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation plans to take up two coal mining projects at Jageshwar in Bokaro district and at Rabodh in Hazaribagh district of the state. Bids have been invited for preparation of mining plan, environmental clearance proposal (EIA / EMP) and all other related works of both the projects.
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