Shashin V Patel - Joint Managing Director, Sadbhav Engineering Ltd, speaks on the road ahead for the mining sector and the opportunities that his company plans to exploit in this space. You have recently received a work order worth Rs 550 crore from South West Mining Ltd, Barmer, in Rajasthan. Give us more details of this project. Yes, we have been awarded the said work worth Rs 525 crore. The order is for two lignite projects in the Barmer region. The two projects are Kapurdi Lignite Mine and Jalipa Lignite Mine. Scope of the work is to deploy heavy earth moving machineries along with operators, maintenance staff & other relevant facilities for the excavation work. We have already commenced operations in Kapurdi Lignite Mines. We hope to commence operations from Jalipa Lignite Mine very soon.
How important a growth driver is mining for your group? We have been in the business of mining for over 15 years now. At a time when the entire sector is poised for unprecedented reforms the significance of the mining division as a growth driver is going to get much better.
Give us the details of the clients that you service. Currently we are executing several projects in different subsidiaries of Coal India Limited. The subsidiaries are Bharat Coking Coal Limited, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, Northern Coalfields Limited, and Western Coalfields Limited. We are also executing a project for Uranium Corporation of India Limited. Besides we are executing two lignite projects for a group company of JSW Energy. We have in the past served Singareni Collieries Company Limited, Gujarat Industrial Power Company Limited, Hindustan Copper, L&T etc. Now we are looking forward to the upcoming auction of coal blocks for growth opportunity now.
Which are the major mining projects that you have undertaken over the past few years, and which are the major projects in the pipeline? During the last 18 months or so we have secured projects in Amlohri Coal Mine of Northern Coalfileds Limited, Basantimata-Dahibari Coal Mine, Dhansar Coal Mine, Katras Coal Mine of BCCL, in Banduhurang Uranium Mine of UCIL.
Recently we have secured Lignite Mining Projects in Barmer, Rajasthan from South West Mining Limited.
Give us some details of your order book. As on March 2014 our order book for mining division was close to Rs 2800 crore. Majority of the order book consists of coal and lignite projects. We are also executing a Uranium based project. We may look at diversifying our project portfolio going forward.
What is your outlook for the mining sector in 2015? The year 2015 will be the year of ´No Looking Back´ particularly for the mining sector. The year will be marked as beginning of the competitive mining sector. We also hope that after successful completion of coal auction for captive consumption, the coal sector will soon be opened for commercial mining.
If the last few weeks are any indication of the intent (the pace at which the government is working to ensure re-auctioning of coal blocks), we are in for a quicker turnaround. Impact of all this will be felt in the year 2015. Going forward we hope everyone will be bullish on the mining sector.