Financial Closures, Highways, Metro and Power projects in the list

 Though the financial year 2013-14 was not a very conducive year from the point of view of projex, nevertheless the year saw promoters of some high ticket projects managing to convince project financiers to fund their projects. Nearly 13 mega projects achieved financial closure in the twelve months ended March 2014.

 The list of successful projects included eight highway projects and two metro projects. The 13 projects which achieved financial closure will bring in a total investment of Rs 54,346 crore. Further, of the 13 projects, eight are under execution.

 The Ahmedabad – Gandhinagar Metro Rail Project was the oldest one of the 13 projects announced way back in October 2003. After the initial hiccups, the project gained momentum when the state government decided to put the project on fast track on receipt of the DPR from DMRC in October 2010.

The project which should have been completed at a cost of Rs 3,200 crore (original estimate) is now expected to cost Rs 21,000 crore. The financial closure achieved in August 2013 is for the first phase costing Rs 4,700 crore. As per the current project schedule the metro is expected to be fully operational by 2021.

Kochi Metro Rail project was proposed by the state government in 2006 but got the central government’s nod only in January 2009. The delay in implementation has already jacked up the project cost from Rs 3,048 crore to Rs 5,200 crore. This is certain to move up further by the time the project is completely commissioned.

The DPR for the 27 km long metro project is prepared by DMRC and Larsen & Toubro and Era Infra Engineering Ltd. are the two main contractors executing the project.

Though the NHAI failed to meet its target of awarding around 9,000 km of highways in the fiscal 2013-14, some of its already awarded projects managed to rope in financiers and achieve financial closures. The NHAI sponsored projects which reported financial closures in FY14 are:

• Sidhi-Singrauli road upgradation project, implemented by Gammon Infrastructure at a cost of Rs 1,096 crore
• Khed-Sinnar road upgradation project, implemented by IL&FS Transportation Networks at a cost Rs 2,015 crore and
• Walayar-Vadakkancherry NH-7 road project, executed by KNR Constructions at a cost Rs 790 crore.

The financial year 2013-14 was not a productive year for private power developers. Not many projects took off during the twelve months period. Among the few who reported progress, Jindal Power was one. The company which is setting up a 4X600 MW power project at Tamnar in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh reported completion of first two units.

Financial Closure FY14
Project	Promoter	Rs Crore	Fin Closure Mth
Paper Boards (Tiruchirapalli)	TNPL	1,500	Feb-14
Solapur-Yedishi Road	NHAI	1,500	Dec-13
Goa/ Karnataka Border – Kundapur Road	IRB West Coast Tollway Pvt. Ltd.	2,639	Dec-13
Kochi Metro Rail  Phase I	Kochi Metro Rail Ltd.	5,200	Nov-13
Khed-Sinnar Road	NHAI	2,015	Nov-13
Barwa Adda-Panagarh Road	Barwa Adda Expressway Ltd.	2,434	Nov-13
Mohania-Ara Road	Bihar State Road Development Corpn. Ltd.	1,200	Sep-13
Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar Metro Rail Phase I	Metro Link Express for Gandhinagar Ahmedabad Co. Ltd.	10,000	Aug-13
Tamnar Expansion Power  – Phase I	Jindal Power Ltd.	7,740	Jul-13
Sidhi-Singrauli Road	Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corpn. Ltd.	1,096	May-13
Walayar-Vadakkancherry Road	NHAI	790	May-13
Bikaner-Suratgarh Road	PWD, Rajasthan	510	May-13
Holi Bajoli Hydel Power	Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board	1,050	Apr-13

Jindal Power tied up with nine banks led by State Bank of India for a loan of Rs 5,418 crore to finance its 2 units in July 2013. The first unit of 600 MW was commissioned in March 2014 and the second unit with similar capacity was synchronized in February 2014. The entire power plant is expected to operate at its full capacity of 2400 MW in the last quarter of 2015.

The project details of the above mentioned projects were drawn from projectstoday.com