Mumbai metro to start this year, says R-Infra

Anil Ambani says company has five-year growth path from being power distribution firm to being full-fledged infrastructure company

Reliance Infrastructure said on Tuesday it planned to commission the Mumbai Metro rail project this year.

“We are geared up to bring it in this year and waiting for requisite approvals," said Lalit Jalan, chief executive, at the 84th annual general meeting.

The company’s chairman, Anil Ambani, said the firm is contemplating expansion of the metro line even before starting operations. “It can accommodate 700,000 passengers a day. We plan to bring it up to one million passengers a day,” he said.

Ambani also tried to allay shareholders’ fears on the Delhi Airport Express project, from which the company recently exited, citing faults in the civil structure constructed by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. “We are confident of recovering all our investment in the project,” he added. Ambani said the company charted a five-year growth path from being a Mumbai power distribution company to a being a full-fledged infrastructure company. “All our projects will be revenue-operational within the financial year,” he said.

It includes road projects, metro project and transmission lines. The company also plans to bring its first cement plant to operation at Maihar in Madhya Pradesh. The plant has annual capacity of five million tonnes and will use the fly ash from Reliance Power’s Sasan plant.

The company plans to increase cement-producing capacity to 20 million tonnes in five years. Reliance Power, which also held its annual general meeting on Tuesday, said it planned to double its generating capacity yet again. “Reliance Power’s operating capacity doubled from 1,200 megawatts (Mw) to 2,545 Mw. We expect to again double operating capacity to over 5,000 Mw within the next 12 months,” said J P Chalasani, chief executive.