Russian Firm Extends Rs 80-Crore Credit To Suryachakra For Power

The $23.34 million (about Rs 80 crore) credit will represent a little more than the Rs 153 crore the two projects will cost.

According to the deputy managing director of Energomachexport, Alexander F Zhigalov, his organisation would also help Suryachakra set up a 2mw wind-power plant at Bheemunipatnam, north of Visakhapatnam.

Zhigalov is here as the head of a Russian team to finalise Suryachakra's Kakinada project. He held discussions with SPCL executives and expressed satisfaction at the pace of work at Kakinada. The plant is to be commissioned by June.

The Russian executive said his organisation was also interested in setting up, jointly with Suryachakra Seafoods, a subsidiary of SPCL, a processing plant in Moscow to process shrimp in block frozen form and cooked form. The shrimp will be marketed in CIS and Europe, apart from Russia.

 

SPCL Managing Director S M Manepalli said that 80 per cent of the shrimp produced in his marine food firm was being marketed in Japan. Lately, the Japanese market was becoming highly competitive and volatile, and hence the need for new markets. Manepalli said Russia and CIS countries consumed considerable seafood, all of which was now being imported from Thailand, Holland and Denmark at exorbitant prices.

"Russia alone imports every year from Europe and Thailand over 2,500 tonnes of shrimp. We can supply them the marine product at a more competitive price," he said.

Manepalli said Suryachakra had already entered into contract with some of the major industrial units in the coast, including Gujarat Ambuja, for purchase of power.

Hindustan Zinc was also negotiating for the purchase of around 25 mega watt power from it, he said.

Under the agreement with the state power board, the company can supply power directly to consumers, on the condition that the negotiated price should not be less than what the board charged to high-tension consumers.