Msrdc Sets Up 7 Firms For Rs 2300 Cr Projects

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has incorporated seven companies to warehouse seven different infrastructure projects worth Rs 2,300 crore with a view to unlock its investments in them. The corporation is scouting for strategic partners for these companies.

The projects which are in various phases of implementation that have been housed in seven companies are : the Rs 725 crore Satara-Kagal highway; the Rs 410 crore Nagpur-Aurangabad-Sinner-Ghoti road; the Rs 81 crore Thane-Ghodbunder Road; the Rs 450 Nagpur Integrated Road Development Project ; the Rs 280 crore Pune Integrated Road Development Project; the Rs 143 crore Aurangabad IRDP; and 19 rail overbridge projects aggregating Rs 195 crore in various parts of the state.

Further, the state government undertaking is closely looking at hiving off the Rs 2,900 crore Mumbai-Pune Expressway project into a separate company.

According to K S Pandav, secretary and financial adviser, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, the strategy of the corporation is to get these projects (assets) off its balance sheet so that the funds generated could be leveraged for taking up new infrastructure projects.

MSRDC, which on December 31, 2002, repaid Rs 796 crore it had raised five years ago via 14 per cent non-convertible debentures (NCDs), has received a Rs 615 crore injection of funds from the state government in the current fiscal.

This has pushed up its net worth to Rs 620 crore (paid-up capital at Rs 5 crore and reserves at Rs 615 crore). Outstanding debt of the corporation currently stands at Rs 4,037 crore.

Of the Rs 3,537 crore raised by way of non-convertible debentures so far, MSRDC has mopped up Rs 337 crore without either state government guarantee or rating.

It has taken term loans amounting to Rs 500 crore from various banks and financial institutions and sanctions aggregating Rs 1,300 crore.