The company has asked investment banker ABN-Amro to sew up the deal by September after getting bids from interested parties, Crompton Greaves CMD KK Nohria said.

He said cellular operators BPL, Escotel and Srinivas Cellcom had approached ABN-Amro evincing interest in the 40.5 stake and have been provided with details of the project. Nohria said the deal would fetch the company much in excess of its earlier demand of Rs 200 crore.

"We demanded Rs 200 crore for the stake before the new policy guidelines announced by the government allowing revenue sharing, but under the new dispensation, the company expects much more than its earlier demand," he said.

The proceeds from the deal, expected during the next quarter, would be used to retire the short-term debts and would be reflected in the current year'sbalance sheet, Nohria said, adding, thereafter the company's debt-equity ratio would come down drastically.

Nohria said the company had decided to hike the price for the stake since the project would turnaround in a short span, but did not go into the specific, when asked whether he could double the price from the earlier demand of Rs 200 crore.

Thapars-controlled Crompton Greaves had spent about Rs 25.20 crore in the project at the time of its commissioning in 1994. Srinivas Cellcom promoted by NRI businessman C Sivasankaran had earlier offered Rs 70 crore Crompton's stake and is expected to be a contendor for the equity since the project would help the company to cover the entire Tamil Nadu.

Escotel's decision to pitch in for the project follows its majority holder, Escorts decision to buy at least one each cellular project in south and north in order to consolidate its position in the sector. Escotel runs cellular services in the nearby state of Kerala.

BPL Mobile, which has cellular licences inTamil Nadu and Kerala, has joined the race as the Chennai licence would help the group to consolidate as a leading cellular player in the south. Besides, it would also help the company to bridge a Chennai-Mumbai corridor since another group company BPL-US West has Mumbai cellular licence.

Industry sources said licencee for Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, JT Mobile was also interested in the SkyCell project since it would help build a southern cellular triangle between Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. Another surprising entrant would be the American power major Enron. The company is reportedly looking to buy at least four cellular projects in the country.

Other stakeholders in the Skycell venture are DSS Enterprises, Bellsouth, USA and Millicom, US. DSS holds 10.5 per cent stake, BellSouth and Millicon hold 24.5 per cent each. Skycell project had reported a loss of Rs 42 crore for 1998-99 and the company's decision to offload the equity in the venture was mainly driven by these losses.