WCA November 2012

India

Insulation project sees poor response The call for tenders for a project by Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) to insulate high–tension wires across the city has received a poor response from potential contractors. The project identified residential areas around the city where wires are dangerously close to housing and public areas, and sought replacement with bunched insulated wires for safety, and to guard against power theft. The lack of interest by bidders for the project has prompted BESCOM to abandon the process and re-evaluate the project. “We found that the bidders had quoted close to 20 per cent more than the 351 crore mentioned in the tender. This amounted to almost 70.2 crore of additional cost for the project, which forced us to look into the details minutely,” said a senior official with BESCOM. He added that there were allegations of non-revision of cost of raw material and that bidders felt the project had not taken a rise in the cost of materials into its budget. The spokesman for BESCOM confirmed that the company will be examining and revising its costs, and plans to restart the tender process in the very near future. Mr Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Steel, has said that Tata Steel Europe needs to focus on cutting costs by identifying and sourcing raw material at competitive prices to keep its operations profitable. Speaking at the company’s 105 th AGM, Mr Tata said that the steel industry in Europe, particularly the UK, has sought government help to meet new environment obligations, and he hoped a favourable decision would be taken. In his last speech as chairman, Mr Tata said steel has been referred to as both a sunrise and a sunset industry, but that Tata Steel has the fortitude to get through difficult times, predicting that Asia will regain momentum, while China and India will continue to grow. However, Fitch Ratings has revised the outlook on Tata Steel and Tata Steel UK Holdings from stable to negative. The revision reflects Fitch’s view that profitability pressures will remain on both companies, given the challenging short-term outlook for the global steel market. BESCOM – India Website : www.bescom.co.in Tata Steel cost cuts

Airtel to increase Nigeria network

Airtel Nigeria, the subsidiary of India’s Airtel, is set to improve its service with the addition of over 2,000km of fibre optic cable. Airtel currently has over 4,000km of fibre cable on its transmission network and 20 million subscribers. Making the announcement recently in Lagos, MD and CEO of Airtel Nigeria, Mr Rajan Swaroop, disclosed that the company has doubled its network capacity and is poised to improve on that in its bid to continue providing telecommunications services in Nigeria. Speaking of the company’s plans, Swaroop said: “In this first phase, we will be adding over 2,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable to our network,” raising it to 6,000km, and he drew attention to the recent rating by telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission, where Airtel was rated the best network in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2012. “Our efforts are paying dividends,” Mr Swaroop said. The doubling of the capacity has put the company in a good position to double its subscription base without impacting on the quality of service. India’s ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) has proposed plans to turn 60 Indian cities into so-called solar cities. The region of Tripura, in north east India, has been selected as a pilot for the scheme. The MNRE is expected to bear 90 per cent of the cost with the remaining costs covered by the Tripura government. Solar hot water systems will be installed in all hotels, nursing homes, school hostels, government circuit houses and bungalows, hospitals and health centres, tourist lodges, temples and the governor’s residence. The city’s street lights and other lights in public places will also be operated on solar energy. “Agartala city will be the first solar city in northeast India within the next few years,” Tripura’s urban development minister Manik Dey said, after inaugurating a 50kW solar power plant at the Agartala Municipal Council head office. He continued: “Solar power is the sustainable and viable energy for both cities and remote areas. [The] electricity crisis [will] not be solved in the country unless we use non-conventional energy like solar power in a big way.” Tripura’s science, technology and environment minister, Joy Gobinda Debroy, said that through the Tripura renewable energy development authority, 80,000 solar lanterns have been distributed among poor people residing in urban as well as rural areas in Tripura, and over 66,000 small and medium hot water plants have been installed across the region. Airtel – India Website : www.airtel.in Solar cities plan

Tata Steel – India Website : www.tatasteel.com

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2012

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