Daulat Ram Group plans windmills unit

Bhopal-based Daulat Ram Group of Industries is planning to enter the wind energy segment by manufacturing windmills.

The company, which plans to invest Rs 25 crore in the venture, is in talks with Chinese and Italian firms on technology sharing. The unit, if it takes shape, will be the only one in India to manufacture windmills for domestic use.

"We will primarily manufacture 1 kW windmills for domestic power generation. But we will also have plans to manufacture higher-capacity windmills," Satish Sharma, promoter of the group, told Business Standard, adding "our target customers will be individuals," he added.

The Daulat Ram windmill will be a cluster of small windmills mounted on a tower. These windmills can run and churn out power even at a very low wind speed.

The firm has a technology on shelf and a unit at the Mandideep industrial area to manufacture blowers and blower motors of any size and design. The firm is also looking at financial institutions and bankers for funding the project, which is expected to take shape within a year.

"We are in talks with banks and financial institutions for loans, and the rest will be arranged through internal arrangements although we are planning to go public by 2007-08," Sharma said.

The Daulat Ram Group of Industries is a market leader in dynamic brake resistors (DBR)""a device that checks speeds of trains. With a small beginning of Rs 1 crore in 1996, the group's turnover is now touching Rs 50 crore.

The Govindpura (Bhopal) unit of the group, which manufactures DBRs, feeds domestic railways for their locomotives with a production capacity of at least 350 units per annum. These high-speed passenger locomotive DBRs have been designed and developed indigenously by the company.

"We have also entered the global market to supply DBRs, which are very cost-effective and of high quality. We produce DBRs at Rs 15 lakh, compared with those available at Rs 50 lakh in international markets," Sharma said.

Earlier, the railways had to import DBRs, and with the availability of the DBRs in India, courtesy Daulat Ram, the railways now reportedly save Rs 100 crore in foreign exchange. The group has also started manufacturing air conditioners.