SAR Group has firmed up plans to set up a unit in Himachal Pradesh, with an initial investment of Rs 200 crore, to venture into telecom sector by providing energy efficient technologies. The company will also supply passive infrastructure like towers and base stations used by the operators for offering wireless mobile services. SAR Group is known for its power solution equipment under ?Luminous? brand.
IFCI Ventures Capital Funds Ltd (IVCFL), an arm of IFCI Limited, has picked up a stake in Luminous Teleinfra Limited for Rs 16 crore.
Paresh Pradhan, director and president, Luminous Teleinfra told FE the new company has already acquired land at Gagrait in Una district of Himachal and work on project has already commenced. He said the solutions would roll out from the new unit by June 2009. He said that ?the telecom infrastructure market in India and developing countries was of well over $ 6-8 billion?.
The Teleinfra was targeting a share of 10 % market in the first year of commissioning of Himachal plant.
Pradhan said that the SAR group?s turnover in 2007-08 was about Rs 500 crores and by the end of current financial year, it would grow to Rs 800 crores and by 2009-10 it would be a Rs 1,000 crore and by 2010-11 it would cross Rs 1500 crore mark including the turnover from Himachal Luminous Teleinfra plant. The group has customers in 29 countries in Asia pacific, Middle East and Africa.
He claimed that upon commissioning the capacity of the Himachal Pradesh plant would be 35 million amperes per month while capacity of electronic plant would be 3000-4000 units. He said that another project of the company to manufacture e-bikes was having trial run these days and its commercial launch was expected in next few months.
Elaborating the concept, Pradhan informed that the project will provide turnkey site preparation services for telecom infrastructure in the country.
It would manufacture deep-cycle telecom batteries, power management units and power conversion devices and innovative solutions for reduction in operating expenditures and carbon emissions for telecom operators.
It would also provide turnkey site preparation services for telecom cell sites all over India leveraging its competencies in supply chain, project management and network design and implementation. He claimed that the company has developed unique technologies for enhancement of energy efficiency in telecom BTS (Base Tran receiver Station) sites.
These technologies will enable the use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power to substantially reduce operating expenditure and carbon footprint for telecom operators in India and developing countries all over the world.