Mr. Lalit Jalan, CEO & Whole time Director, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd

Mr. Lalit Jalan, CEO & Whole time Director, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd joined Reliance Industries Limited as Chief Executive Officer, Polypropylene Business in 1995. At 39, he was the youngest ever CEO at Reliance. He has done MBA in Finance from Wharton School and MS in Computer Science from Moore School, University of Pennsylvania, 1982. Prior to that he did his BTech from IIT, Kanpur in 1979. He graduated throughout in top 2% of his class. He was the winner of Directors Honours and Deans List at Wharton. He has been awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT, Kanpur. He was also showcased as one of the 15 achievers from the IIT system at the 1st PAN IIT meet in California in January, 2003.

Reliance Infrastructure Limited is India's leading company in the private sector with aggregate group revenues of Rs 225bn. It has presence in generation, transmission, distribution and trading of power along with EPC division. Besides the power sector, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. has also emerged as an infrastructure major owning 11 Road projects, 3 Metro rail projects, 1 Sealink, 5 Transmission Projects and 5 Brown-Field Airport projects with a total project outlay of Rs. 40,000 crore. The company is ranked among India's top listed private companies on all major financial parameters, including assets, sales, profits and market capitalization. Reliance Infrastructure, a part of Reliance Group, is India's largest infrastructure company.

Replying to Yash Ved of IIFL, Lalit Jalan says, "The company is developing 11 road projects with a total length of around 1,000 kms, at a cost of around Rs 120bn."

Brief us about your current and upcoming projects in infrastructure?
The company is developing 11 road projects with a total length of around 1,000 kms, at a cost of around Rs 120bn. Out of them, NK Toll and DS Toll Road projects - both on National Highway (NH) 7 – have been completed and are commercially in operation from September, 2009.

The NHAI is coming out with 10 Mega Highway Projects and major six-laning projects for an increased utilization of India’s road potential. Taking advantage of this opportunity, RInfra is targeting to build its road business up to Rs 200bn by the end of this financial year.

This showcases the initiatives that RInfra is adopting proactively to build roads that are an amalgamation of corridors to propel India’s growth and development.

We have various projects which are under operation: NK Toll Road Limited has constructed 43 kms long 4 lane National Highway (NH 7) road connecting Namakkal and Karur in Tamil Nadu with a concession period of 20 years. DS Toll Road Limited has constructed 53 kms long 4 lane National Highway (NH 7) road connecting Dindigul and Samynallore near Madurai in Tamil Nadu with a concession period of 20 years.

Projects under Execution
TK Toll Road Private Limited is constructing 81 kms long 4 lane National Highway (NH67) road from Trichy to Karur in the state of Tamil Nadu with a concession period of 30 years.

SU Toll Road Private Limited is constructing 136 kms long 4 lane National Highway (NH68) road from Salem to Ulenderpet in the state of Tamil Nadu with a concession period of 25 years.

TD Toll Road Private Limited is constructing 88 kms long 4 lane National Highway (NH45) road connecting Trichy and Dindigul in the state of Tamil Nadu with a concession period of 30 years.

GF Toll Road Limited is constructing 66km of State / MDR road in the state of Haryana. GF Toll has signed the concession agreement with Haryana PWD for a concession period of 17 years.

The company has bagged five NHAI projects. Of the five, three are six laning projects. In these six laning projects, tolling can be commenced parallel to the commencement of construction from the day financial closure is achieved.

In the metro business
Awarded by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Corridor Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) project (Mumbai Metro Line I) forms our first project. It was awarded to RInfra led consortium through a global competitive bidding process on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) framework.

The Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd Corridor Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) project (Mumbai Metro Line II) awarded by MMRDA, forms our second project.

In Delhi, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) awarded a project to a consortium of RInfra (95%) and CAF, Spain (5%) through a global competitive bidding process on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) framework.

This project is one of the firsts for the country in which the high-speed metro connecting the airport directly to the central business district and is expected to be operational soon.

What are the plans for EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) business?
EPC would be a potential growth area. There are huge opportunities in this business. There are some additional Rs 250bn of projects to be bid out of from Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. itself like Metro II or Sealink.

We have other projects like the two power transmission projects and the UMPPs which have to bid out as well. So, we can comfortably say that EPC will be a significant contributor in our business.

How much of the revenue comes from EPC currently? What is your current order book?
Our EPC order book position stands at Rs 240bn. On a standalone basis, the turnover of EPC business was Rs 8.07bn for the quarter ending September 30, 2010

When can we expect Versova-Ghatkopar project to be operational?
We are working towards making the project operational by the end of 2011.

Are you planning to consolidate road projects into another subsidiary?
If required, and if there is a need to raise equity or for any other reason we might think of listing it or bring in some private equity in it.

As on date, the company has 11 highway projects of around 1,000 Km on a pan-India basis worth about Rs 120bn.

How many road projects are you planning to develop?
The company is the largest developer of 6 laning NHAI projects - developing 3 projects of 380 kms and is amongst the largest private concessionaire of NHAI BOT projects in road sector, developing 3 projects of 400 odd kms.

Some signature projects by Rinfra include the Kandla-Mundra roads project of 90 kms which connects both the ports - this is one of the port connectivity project; the Pune – Satara road project – 140 kms, which is the first 6 lane project going live; the Delhi – Agra road project – 180 kms and Hosur – Krishnagiri road project - 60 kms, all of which are NHAI BOT projects.

• Six laning of NH 2 between Delhi and Agra of length 180km in the state of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The concession period of the project is 26 years. The project road starts at Delhi/Faridabad junction at km 20.5 on NH-2 and end near Agra at km 200. The project road is the main corridor connecting Delhi to all southern and eastern parts of India.
• Four laning of NH 11 between Jaipur and Reengus of length 52km in the state of Rajasthan. This corridor connects Northen part of Rajasthan to its capital city Jaipur. This is also along the corridor connecting tourist places of Rajasthan - Jaipur, Katusham Mandir, Sikar, Bikaner etc. Concession Period of this project is for 18years.
• Six laning of NH 4 between Pune and Satara of length 140km in the state of Maharashtra. The concession period of the project is 24 years. This project is along the main corridor connecting Mumbai / Pune to southern parts of Maharashtra and all Southern States of India. The project scope in addition to six laning includes construction of 53 major structures and 240km of service road all along the entire corridor. Concession Agreement is signed and preliminary mobilisation activities have started.
• Four / Six laning of NH 8A between Kandla and Mundra Ports of length 72km in the state of Gujarat.
• Six laning of NH 7 between Hosur and Krishnagiri of length 60km in the state of Tamil Nadu.

More than 6,500 people working on sites as of now and would be doubled once our construction work starts in Kandla-Mundra, Pune-Satara and Delhi-Agra

How many metro rail projects are you planning to develop?
We are executing 3 metro projects (2 in Mumbai and 1 in Delhi) till date and will continue to evaluate any opportunity which comes along the way.

How many customers have you added during this quarter in power distribution?
We have 26 lakh customers in Delhi and 27 lakh customers in Mumbai. We added almost 24,000 customers in the second quarter whereas in FY10 almost 1 lakh new customers were added.

RInfra's Mumbai distribution business has continued to grow in a span of one year of competitive framework. It has not only added 88,500 new consumers to its base but also saw almost 200 consumers switch back to RInfra from their previous choice, Tatas, within a one year period.

Brief us about your financials?
For the quarter ended 30 September, 2010, total Operating Income stood at Rs 404.3mn (US$ 900 million), against Rs 39.74bn in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year, an increase of 2%. Net Profit stood at Rs 3.60bn (US$ 80 mn), against Rs 3.25bn in the corresponding quarter of previous year, an increase of 11%.

On a consolidated basis, the net worth of the Company stood at Rs 215.52bn (US$ 4.8 billion) and book value per share at Rs 880 as on September 30, 2010.