Andhra Pradesh terminates metro contract with Maytas

The Andhra Pradesh government has terminated the Rs 12,000-crore-plus contract awarded to Maytas Infra for the Hyderabad Metro Rail project for reneging on contractual commitments.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in a statement on Tuesday announced the state’s decision to cancel the concession agreement with Mytas Metro Ltd, the special purpose vehicle formed to execute the project.

The contract for the Metro Rail Project was awarded to a Maytas Infra-led consortium in a global tendering. The other consortium members were Nava Bharat Ventures Ltd, Italian-Thai Development Public Company Ltd and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Reliance Industries Limited begins gas production from Krishna Godavari -D6

Finally,the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries has begun gas production from Dhirubhai 1 and 3 discoveries in the KG-D6 block,amidst reports that the company may spend an additional $5.9 billion on developing fields in the Krishna-Godavari basin.

At peak production of oil & gas, the KG-D6 facility would produce over 550,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The company had planned to start gas production from September last year and later at the beginning of this year.

As reported by FE on March 2,the company aims at gas production of 80 million standard cubic meters a day(mmscmd) by December-end instead of an original target of 2011.

An RIL release said the initial production of gas from the Dhirubhai 1 and 3 will be sold to existing fertiliser and power companies, which will substantially cut the government’s subsidy burden.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Jairam Ramesh resigns

Union minister of state for commerce & power Jairam Ramesh resigned from his post on Wednesday citing involvement with election campaigning for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Ramesh, who is a Rajya Sabha member of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh, told FE this evening that it would be impossible to give time to party work while continuing as a minister in the government. “I need to focus fully on election campaigning. It is not easy to handle two ministries and election campaigning at the same time. In fact, it is impossible,”he said.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Saudi Aramco in talks to join Vizag refinery project

The world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, is likely to step in as the new joint venture partner in one of India’s largest oil and gas projects: the over Rs 50,000-crore refinery-cum-petrochemical project at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The project is currently being set up as a five-way alliance between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), GAIL, Oil India Ltd (OIL), French energy giant Total and steel czar LN Mittal.

When contacted, HPCL CMD Arun Balakrishnan confirmed that Saudi Aramco has shown interest in the Vizag project. “Talks are on to bring in Saudi Aramco as a strategic partner in this project, which will cost anywhere between Rs 45,000 crore and Rs 50,000 crore. Saudi Aramco’s presence will ensure crude oil supplies to the project. We are waiting to hear from them,” he said.

Asked about the extent of equity stake being offered to Saudi Aramco, Balakrishnan said, “We have had no discussions on this front. But anywhere up to 15% would be offered.”

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit:
http://epaper.financialexpress.com/FE/FE/2008/11/26/index.shtml

Andhra starts work on country’s first aerospace engineering SEZ

Following the government of India’s approval, the country’s first aerospace and precision engineering SEZ is taking shape in Andhra Pradesh at Adibhatla, near the Hyderabad international airport. The foundation stone for the SEZ was laid today by the Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekara Reddy during the India Aviation 2008 meet.

To be spread across 351 acres, the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Ltd (APIIC) has identified the land. An advisory group is being formed to be chaired by eminent aerospace scientist K Harinarayana to over see the project implementation. The focus areas of the SEZ include manufacturing of defence, aerospace and commercial aircraft components, testing and calibration labs, high precision metrological labs operation, a commercial MRO and flying training hub, design and development of satellite missiles apart from the common facilities. Apart from this, engineering services, an avionics systems repair and supply chain management is also facilitated.

The SEZ aims to have tail or made benefits to suit to particular investment requirement on case-to-case basis for mega projects with investments more than Rs 100 crore.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit:
http://epaper.financialexpress.com/FE/FE/2008/10/16/index.shtml