WCA March 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 : www.vguard.in 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 : www.rdif.ru 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 : www.aptransco.in 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 : www.akshoptifibre.com

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2015