Gayatri Projects eyes underground coal mining services

Gayatri Projects is seeking to offer mining services for underground coal mines of Coal India Ltd and other companies.

The Hyderabad-based diversified infrastructure company, which is into construction, infrastructure and power segments, has entered into a partnership with China Coal Overseas Development Company, a Beijing-based subsidiary of China Coal, to offer Longwall technology for mining.

With the government setting a target of 1 billion tonnes per annum coal extraction by Coal India, which includes significant contribution from underground mines, there is an opportunity out there for services providers, a company official said. The proposed capacity addition includes about 100 mtpa of underground mining. The company has managed to bag two projects, thus far, and is gearing up to bid for upcoming projects to offer mining services through its tech partner.

Gayatri won one of the four privately awarded Longwall mining projects in the country at Jhanjhra underground mine. The six-year contract has initial value of INR 400 crore.

The project envisages extracting coking coal for Eastern Coalfields from Jhanjhra underground mine in Durgapur in West Bengal.

Here the company plans to deploy Longwall technology with its Chinese partner. The second project, a INR 325-crore worth contract is for BCCL, a subsidiary of Coal India, where Longwall project has to be developed for Moonidih Seam-16 underground mine.

As the company consolidates its roads business, it has begun restructure and monetisation of road BOT assets. It is in the process of restructure of all its BOT assets.

Apart from divestment of stake in one of the road assts, it is planning to buyout stake from one of its private equity partner.

Gayatri Energy Ventures, which was initially planning to increase its stake in power generation subsidiaries from 13 per cent to 30 per cent each by raising capital through mezzanine funding, has decided against the move and has worked out a different structure with Sembcorp Utilities, the major shareholder in the power units.

The company closed last fiscal with income of INR 1,812 crore and profit of INR 58.6 crore. The company order book across various businesses has swelled past the INR 11,000-mark.