Valecha bags Rs 300 crore road projects

The Mumbai-based Valecha Engineering Ltd said it has secured projects worth about Rs 300 crore, mainly in road construction, helped by the spurt in highway projects across the country.

The company expects to complete 50 per cent of the projects this year, which should drive its revenues up to about Rs 110 crore during 2003-04 and 40 per cent the year after at about Rs 150 crore, managing director J K Valecha said.

The BSE-listed company is 66 per cent owned by the Valecha family, while the remaining 34 per cent is with the public, mutual funds and non-resident Indians.

"Three-four years back, we were only focused on Maharashtra. Now, we are doing projects in all parts of the country," Valecha said. These include the Rs 85 crore Golden Quadrilateral Satara-Kolhapur project to build 150 kms of road by four companies. The company has also bagged a Rs 25 crore contract from National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) for hydraulic piling work at its plant at Kahalgaon, Bihar. In north India, the company is working in various projects in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

In Eastern India, it has completed a Rs 60 crore project in Guwahati bypass, which has now been opened to the public.

"We were primarily into building tunnels, dams and canals. sewage power projects and storage reserviors. Now, 75-80 per cent of our business in the next financial year will come from road projects," Valecha said.

The company has recently undertaken runway works at the Mumbai, Chennai and Dimapur airports.