Essel Utilities plans Rs 6,000 cr capex in next 2 years

Essel Utilities Distribution Company is planning a capital expenditure of Rs 6,000 crore in the next two years for setting up 20 franchises across the country.
The company, which is engaged in transforming public utility infrastructure by adopting, has set a target of setting up 20 distribution franchises across the country. It already operates five such franchises, including the one in Nagpur.
"It requires approximately Rs 300 crore for setting up a distribution franchise and we plan to add 20 more in the next two years, therefore about Rs 6,000 crore of capex would be for this purpose," Kamal Maheshwari, President, Smart City Business, Essel Utilities, told PTI.

The company will look at establishing these franchises in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Punjab.
Essel Utilities has recently acquired power distribution projects in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
The company under long term public-private partnership will engage in building smart communities across major cities of India by taking up projects in power and water distribution services, municipal solid waste management, sewage treatment, city wi-fi, city gas distribution etc.

Essel Utilities, which operates in three divisions -- Gandhibagh, Civil Lines and Mahal -- in Nagpur has been successful in bringing down the technical and commercial losses to 15.4 per cent since it took over in 2010-11. The losses were hovering at 32 per cent around that time.

The company manages the power distribution services through its special purpose vehicle SND Limited.
"We were able to bring the losses down by bringing in tamper-proof metering among other things. We booked about 5,000 cases of power theft cases in 2012-13 alone," Sonal Khurana, Business Head, SND Limited said.