Thermax lines up Rs 400 cr for 7 projects

Thermax's Cogen division has announced the construction and commissioning of seven captive power and cogen projects at an investment of about Rs 400 crore. This would add 134 MW within a year's time.

The seven projects, when completed, would have a total installed capacity of 278 MW. Thermax's captive power projects would make it easier for manufacturing companies to build power plants to meet in-house requirements.

"The captive power plants segment was given a boost by the changes brought about in the regulatory regime for electricity generation and distribution," said Meher Pudumjee, chairperson, Thermax.

Thermax's top brass opened an engineering research centre in Chennai as as to focus on boilers.

According to Prakash M Kulkarni, managing director, Thermax, Chennai has become a hub for boiler manufacture and related activity.

The Rs 1,247-crore company concentrates largely on engineering-related businesses. As part of its international operations, the company has set up a subsidiary in China. Pudumjee said there were three primary objectives behind the move to China.

One was to use the unit to procure raw materials, second to learn more about its Chinese competitors and finally, to understand the working of the Chinese market.

Thermax is also working on extending its share in key overseas markets such as the US and the UK.

At present, about 20 per cent of the company's turnover comes from overseas market.