Vishvaraj Plans Rs 6,000 cr Investment In Waste Water Projects

MUMBAI, February 28: Vishvaraj Infrastructure plans to invest around Rs 6,000 crore over the next five years to tap the growing market for waste water treatment and expand its footprint across the country. It expects to garner around Rs 2,500 crore in revenue from this business, the company's Chairman and Managing Director Arun Lakhani said. Vishvaraj Infrastructure, which started off with BOT road projects in Maharashtra, has diversified into integrated water supply, waste water treatment and reuse segments. "Around 38,250 MLD of wastewater is generated by tier-I and II cities, which is estimated to grow 3.5 times to 1,32,250 MLD by 2050. "We see this as a huge market for sewage treatment and reuse for commercial purposes," Lakhani told PTI here. On the revenue side, he said, "Though we will continue to look at road projects, our focus will be on water business now. "In the next five years, with the current projects and addition of a few more, we can expect up to Rs 2,500 crore revenue from this segment," he said. He added that the company is looking at entering Rajasthan, Karnataka, Haryana, West Bengal and Bihar to take up waste water treatment and water supply projects. Vishvaraj is currently executing water supply projects in Nagpur in Maharashtra, and Magadi, Bidar and Basavakalyan in Karnataka. It is also executing a USD 42-million sewage water treatment project in Nagpur. The current waste water treatment capacity in the country is only around 30 percent of the total generation, but only 55 percent of this is operational. "This translates to an investment gap of over USD 7 billion for tier I and II cities by next fiscal year alone. We want to be known as an urban utility and focus on waste water treatment and reuse," Lakhani said. He said sewage water needs has to be looked at as a resource as it is ultimately water that can be used by industries after treatment. "This is a win-win proposition to create value from waste whilst contributing positively to environmental sustainability," he said. The company, which is operating four BOT road projects, is expecting a total revenue of Rs 500 crore in the next two years. -PTI