IRB INFRA QUALIFIES TO BID FOR RS 22,000 CRORE ROAD PROJECT

IRB Infrastructure Developers said it has qualified to bid for projects worth Rs 22,000 crore from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Gujarat State Road Development Corp (GSRDC) among others.

"As regards to the future growth opportunities available, the company has qualified to develop projects worth Rs 22,000 crore," IRB Infra chairman and managing director V Mhaiskar told shareholders at the company's Annual General Meeting here.

These include projects from NHAI, GSRDC, Government of Rajasthan and Maharashtra state PWD, Mhaiskar said.

Mhaiskar said IRB Infra recently emerged as the lowest bidder for four Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects, amounting to Rs 4,300 crore.

It has also been selected by Maharashtra Government to develop the Rs 150-crore greenfield airport at Sindhdurg.

"The current order book of the company will almost double to around Rs 10,350 crore from Rs 5,900 crore as on March 31, 2009, with these new projects in hand,” said Mhaiskar.

In the last 30 years, IRB Infra and subsidiaries have built or operated and managed 1,440 kilometre of road length and has emerged as the largest toll operator in the country with daily toll revenue of around Rs 2 crore.

CEMENT INDUSTRY HIT BY REALTY SLOWDOWN

The slump in the realty sector, which accounts for about 65 per cent of the total cement consumption in India, has affected the cement sector. Since most realtors are facing a severe cash crisis, it is quite unlikely that too much real estate development will take place in the near future. IT/ITES segments account for about 75% of the office space across India and lower growth in employee recruitment for the sector shall translate into muted demand for cement. Cement exports have also declined from 10 million tonne (mt) in FY05 to 2.1 mt between April-December 2008 on account of additional capacity addition and the real estate slowdown in the Middle East region, which is the main export market for Indian cement producers.