Megha Engineering and Infrastructure sees prospects in PSU disinvestments

Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrast­ructure (MEIL) is betting big on not just government contracts but also buying Union government equity in public sector companies.
 
The company has been shortlisted as qualified bidder for Shipping Corporation of India, Neelachal Ispat, and BEML. In an interview, P V Krishna Reddy, managing director of the company, said it was looking at opportunities in disinvestment.
 
“Opportunities are there. Besides, buying Neelachal Ispat will be backward integration. We buy more than 1 million tonnes of steel (for projects),” he added.
 

The group will also be looking at an initial public offering sometime next year, besides raising debt. “We will raise Rs 15,000-20,000 crore. Due diligence is being done,” said Reddy.

 
MEIL was the sole private sector bidder for private trains but the tender for it was on hold since there was not enough interest in it. Besides Megha Engineering, Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation had shown an interest in running private trains in the country. MEIL started as a small fabrication unit in 1989 with fewer than 10 employees but now has 10,000 employees.
 
It initially had projects across the irrigation and drinking water sectors but later moved to infrastructure and manufacturing capital goods. It now has a footprint in 20 countries.
 
The company recently handed over an indigenously built oil and gas rig to ONGC as part of a Rs 6,000-crore tender. It had bagged a contract to supply 47 rigs, comprising 20 workover rigs and 27 land drilling rigs, to ONGC in 2019. The first such rig was handed over in April while the second rig was delivered in August. By March 2022, it is going to deliver 23 rigs to ONGC. MEIL had bought out an Italian company, Drill Mac, in January 2019, for getting expertise into this business. The automated rigs are using advanced hydraulic technology acquired from the takeover of Drill Mac.

 
It is executing the Rs 4,600-crore Zojila tunnel project for better connectivity between Kashmir and Leh in the Ladakh region.
 
Strategically built at an 11,578-foot-high altitude, the Zojila tunnel uses New Austrian Tunnel Method (NATM) technology, which allows ventilation and evacuation.
 
The construction of the 14.5-km Zojila tunnel requires working in sub-zero temperatures, which necessitates special and latest technologies for designing project components, selecting material, work methods, equipment and fuel and lubricants, said a company executive.
 
The tunnel will have vertical ventilation shafts, making it the first road tunnel in India to use shafts for “transverse ventilation”. For constructing these vertical shafts, a head gear system has been designed. Besides, avalanche protection structures will be created. These will include cut and cover tunnels, snow galleries, catch dams, deflector dams and air blast walls. The design and construction of these special structures requires the latest technologies because not many projects are executed in these conditions, added the company executive.

 
The company has undertaken around 10 tunnelling projects including those in Telangana’s Kaleshwaram project and Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme; Veligonda Gravity Canal Tunnel in Andhra Pradesh; and Rail Vikas Nigam’s works in Uttarakhand.