Essel Group pledge to invest Rs. 20,000 Crores towards developing 2 Smart Cities and vital infrastructural projects in West Bengal

Essel Group pledge to invest Rs. 20,000 Crores towards developing 2 Smart Cities and vital infrastructural projects in West Bengal

·         Essel Group submits LOI to the Government of West Bengal

·         Saltlake City and New Town to get transformed into world-class integrated SMART Cities with an investment of Rs. 10,000 Crores

·         Keen to take up infrastructural and urban development projects in infrastructure& utilities worth another Rs. 10,000 Crore 

Kolkata January 8, 2015: Essel Group, India’s leading business conglomerate has submitted a Letter of

Intent (LOI) to the Government of West Bengal to develop 2 Smart Cities and series of infrastructural and urban development projects for the state. Submitting the document, Essel Groupannounced to commit investment ofRs. 10,000 crore towards transforming 2 major cities of West Bengal namely Saltlake City and New Town. The group has also shown keen interest to participate ininfrastructural, urban renewal and socially relevant projects worth Rs. 10,000 crore through competitive bidding under Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model and/or EPC (Engineering, procurement and construction) model, as mentioned in the LOI submitted to the government of West Bengal.

Essel with its futuristic objective to build smarter communities and world class infrastructure is targeting projects like toll roads with an investment of Rs. 3,000 Crore, sanitation and water treatment worth investment of Rs. 2,000 Crore, over 500 TPD (tones per day) municipal solid waste project to convert waste to energy with an investment of Rs. 2,000 Crore and metro/monorails/LRT project worth investment of Rs. 3,000 Crore, totaling Rs.10,000 crores of investment in infrastructural projects. 

Essel Group’s integrated utilities company – Essel Utilities Distribution Company Limited (EUDCL) being country’s first and only integrated utility player is also eyeing toundertake projects in Power and Water Distribution Services, Drainage and Storm Water Management, City Wi-Fi, Cable and Broadband, City Gas Distribution and Intelligent Traffic Management Systems and focus on nurturing smarter communities across major cities in West Bengal. These services will be offered through a single-window solution model based on SIPC (Smart Integrator and Principal Contractor) concept, thus delivering an all-in-one conduit to consumers. This will be a first-of-its kind concept where all utility services will be offered under one roof with Essel taking responsibility from planning and designing stage to funding and implementation of projects, in creating a smart city habitat.

Essel Utilities presently manages power distribution franchise in Sagar& Ujjain (MP), Muzaffarpur (Bihar) and Nagpur (Maharashtra). Shortly, the company will also be managing power distribution services for Gwalior in MP.  The company also manages the Water distribution franchise in Aurangabad (Maharashtra) and Bhagalpur (Bihar).

The company has also been awarded seven projects in solid waste management in Deonar (Mumbai), Jabalpur (MP), Pallavapuram (Chennai), Surat (Gujarat), Bhubaneswar (Orissa) & Bangalore (Karnataka). It further intends to foray into various other verticals such as city gas distribution & cable & broadband in major cities of India. 

Sharing an insight and talking of company’s ability and vision, Mr. Ashok Agarwal,Director & CEO, Essel Infra & Utilities business said, “Being a cultural heritage and imminent technology hub, WB puts forward a unique challenge of strengthening its existing infrastructures and an opportunity to build new framework, which Essel comprehends. With its proven capability in implementation of integrated utilities, Essel group is confident to glocalize the state of WB at par with its global counterparts keeping its local flavor intact by developing inclusive & Smart Cities across the state. Essel Group being a though leader for the Smart City concept in India will lead the consortium of partners as Smart integrator & principal contractor and will closely work with state’s government in formulating the governance & policy framework and sustainable financial architecture for Smart Cities”

Essel group recently had committed to invest Rs.7500 crore towards transforming five major cities of Madhya Pradesh into state-of-the-art Smart Cities and is evaluating development projects in infrastructure utility worth Rs. 50,000 crore in the years to come, so far the Essel group has invested Rs. 5000 crore for similar projects in Madhya Pradesh. Projects of this scale will help generate employment opportunity to a huge number of people and transform the way cities and communities are designed, built and renewed to ensure economic, social and environmental sustainability.

About Essel Group

The Essel Group is among India's most prominent business houses with a diverse portfolio of assets in media, packaging, entertainment, technology-enabled services, infrastructure development and education. The Group started business in 1976 with a commodity trading and export firm. Today, Essel Group of Companies is a vast conglomerate of Media, Technology, Entertainment, Packaging, Infrastructure, Education, Healthy Lifestyle & Wellness, Financial Services and Precious Metals with worldwide operations and a workforce of over 10,000 dedicated employees.

About Essel Utilities Distribution Company (EUDCL)

Essel Group’s Integrated Utilities Company “Essel Utilities Distribution Company Limited” (EUDCL) popularly known as Essel Utilities having operations under its flagship brand of Smart Utilities. It’s India’s first consumer-centric ‘integrated utilities’ service brand delivering smart value and efficiency, committed to participating in public-private partnership projects across India for transforming the ageing public utility infrastructure into a modern state-of-the-art utility realm. EUDCL has a turnover of Rs. 830 crores (INR) and Essel Utilities presently manages power distribution franchise in Sagar& Ujjain (MP), Muzaffarpur (Bihar) and Nagpur (Maharashtra). Shortly, the company will also be managing power distribution services for Gwalior in MP.  The company also manages the Water distribution franchise in Aurangabad (Maharashtra) and Bhagalpur (Bihar). The company has also been awarded seven projects in solid waste management in Deonar (Mumbai), Jabalpur (MP), Pallavapuram (Chennai), Surat (Gujarat), Bhubaneswar (Orissa) & Bangalore (Karnataka).

It further intends to foray into various other verticals such as city gas distribution & cable & broadband in major cities of India. The company aim towards a top line revenue close to Rs. 2000 crores (INR) and a reach of more than 2 million consumer households by 2015 - 16.