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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2015
India Insight
New wire facility
The electrical appliance manufacturer V Guard Industries is
to expand its wire manufacturing capacity with a new facility
in South India. The company currently has the capacity to
manufacture nine million coils per year.
Mithun K Chittilappilly, V Guard’s managing director,
explained: “We would require additional capacity after two
years from now. In order to meet that we are planning to
start works on a new facility, which would be ready for
operation in two years, in South India.”
V Guard’s existing wire facilities are in Coimbatore, Tamil
Nadu; Kashipur, Uttarakhand; and Periamet in Chennai. The
new facility is planned for a greenfield site in Tamil Nadu, but
the company is also considering other states offering more
incentives.
V Guard Industries – India
Website:
Russia/India power pact
A visit to India by president Vladimir Putin saw Tata Power
and Gamesa Wind Turbine sign agreements for greater
cooperation with Russia within the electricity sector.
Tata Power signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding)
with Russian Direct Investment Group while Gamesa Wind
Turbine signed with ROTEK of Russia. The pact between
Gamesa Wind Turbine and ROTEK will facilitate cooperation
in wind power equipment.
Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) will cooperate in
identifying and targeting investment opportunities in the
energy sector across Russia in order to develop mutually
beneficial transactions.
“The signing of [the] MoU is a significant milestone for Tata
Power and we endeavour to be a significant player in the
international energy market,” said Anil Sardana, Tata
Power’s CEO and MD.
RDIF’s CEO, Kirill Dmitriev, commented: “RDIF has identified
energy sector as one of its key priorities for increasing
Russia’s economic efficiency and sustainability.”
Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) – Russia
Website:
Going underground for
cable safety
The cyclone-prone region of Andhra Pradesh is likely to
become the first Indian state to supply electricity through an
underground cable system. The massive changeover from
the conventional pole system will see a separate power
supply line laid across ten coastal districts.
“Under this project, a separate transmission and distribution
system will be constructed underground at a distance of
5km from the east coast. This will completely eliminate
power supply failures due to cyclones and flash floods,” K
Vijayanand, chairman and managing director of AP Transco,
said in a statement.
In the first phase, 620km of transmission and about 800km
of distribution power lines will cover Srikakulam,
Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari and West
Godavari districts. In the second phase, 738km of
transmission and 800km of distribution line will be laid
covering the districts of Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore
and Chittoor under the limits of the Southern Power Discom.
“We are planning to complete the project in two years from
the date of tender finalisation,” added Mr Vijayanand.
It was following the devastating effect of the Hudhud
cyclone that chief minister Chandrababu Naidu directed AP
Transco and AP Genco officials to plan for underground
cabling across the coastal districts. After a series of
meetings with international banks, AP Transco secured
three banks (Asian Development Bank, World Bank and
Japan Bank) to fund the project.
AP Transco – India
Website:
Defence network
Aksh Optifibre Ltd has been awarded an order worth $17
million for the supply of optical fibre cables for India’s
defence network for spectrum (NFS) project. The company,
with the state-run Telco ITI, was the lowest bidder for
Package F (West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand,
Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sikkim) of the project.
The companies will be involved in supplying and handling
end-to-end deployment of an optical fibre cable backbone
network for India’s armed forces.
The defence NFS project consists of 57,015km of fibre optic
cable, divided into seven packages, and is planned to be
complete within 18 months. The project will be owned and
operated by the defence services under the project
implementation core group (PICG) of the ministry of defence.
Mr Chetan Choudhari, managing director of Aksh Optifibre,
said: “The company has extensive capability in
manufacturing custom made cables for different
requirements and geographies and is more than delighted to
be a part of the strategically important NFS project of the
Indian armed forces.”
The defence telecom project will see the armed forces
migrate all its communication needs to the new optic fibre
network and so make more bandwidth available for
commercial telephony.
Aksh Optifibre currently has three manufacturing units in
Bhiwadi, Rajasthan; Reengus, Sikar District; and a newly
commissioned FRP manufacturing facility in Jafza, Dubai.
Aksh Optifibre Ltd – India
Website: