The last month of the fiscal 2010-2011, saw 72 contracts worth a sum of Rs 26,321.07 crore being firmed up. Bulk of the total amount was accounted by the two contracts bagged by Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra) and BHEL. Interestingly, same kind of surge was seen in March 2010 also. During the month, 117 contracts worth a whopping Rs 45,597.57 crore were secured. Urgency shown by companies to clear the list of contracts marked for awarding during the fiscal, could be one of the reasons for such sharp spikes.

Coming back to March 2011, the Electricity and the Power Distribution sector saw 20 contracts worth Rs 19,714.27 crore. India based companies won nine contracts in coal/lignite based power sector, five in power distribution, four in nuclear based power, and one each in gas and hydel based power. R-Infra bagged a Rs 7,200 crore contract from the group company Reliance Power for the EPC works of the 2,400 MW gas based combine cycle power project at Samalkot in Andhra Pradesh.

BHEL clinched four major contracts in these sectors. Lalitpur Power Generation Company gave away a Rs 5,450-crore contract for setting up the 1,980 MW (3x660 MW) Lalitpur supercritical coal-based power station in Uttar Pradesh. The company was awarded a Rs 3,200-crore contract from the West Bengal Power Development Corporation for supply and installation of the main plant package for the 2x500 MW Sagardighi Thermal Power Project Stage-II.

A contract valued at Rs 1,590 crore was awarded by PGCIL for ± 800 kV 6,000 MW HVDC Multi- Terminal System Package associated with the NE/ER-N/WR Interconnector-1 project in Uttar Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation gave away a contract worth Rs 1,445 crore for design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of steam turbines, generators and boilers, along with stateof- the-art controls and instrumentation and other associated auxiliaries including switch-yard for Rayalaseema project in Kadapa district.

The Irrigation and Real Estate sectors witnessed five and four contracts each in the month. Megha Engineering obtained two contracts. Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam awarded a Rs 556-crore contract for the construction of a pumping station and pump house in Gujarat. A Rs 551-crore contract for the Khargone lift irrigation project in Madhya Pradesh was handed over by the Narmada Valley Development Authority.

Of the four contracts in the Real Estate sector, the largest one was also an overseas contract. RPP Infra Projects was awarded the Rs 1,562.5-crore contract by the Republic of Gabon to construct and deliver 10,000 houses over a period of 36 months over various phases on DBFOT basis. Other than this, only two more contracts were won from foreign shores. These were won by PSL for the construction of a water transmission system from Ras Azour in the eastern province to Hafr Al-Baten in the central system, constituting API 5L Grade X- 65, 44-inch diameter pipes for a total length exceeding 350-km in Saudi Arabia and by SAIL for exporting 14,000 tonne of the UIC-60 grade of rails to Sri Lanka.