New Delhi, May 13
Seeking to assuage fears of four big mobile service providers, including Bharti, of huge payout for excess spectrum, telecom regulator TRAI today said their outgo would be only about Rs 12,000 crore.

"There is no need for anxiety ... The payout for each of these four companies are not much. As per TRAI estimates, the amount of money Bharti will have to pay is Rs 3,498 crore and for Vodafone Essar it is Rs 2,849 crore. For MTNL, it is Rs 2,669 crore and for BSNL it is Rs 3,040 crore," TRAI chairman JS Sarma told PTI.

For radiowaves beyond the contracted 6.2 Mhz in their possession, the TRAI on Tuesday recommended that operators pay a one-time fee based on prices of 3G spectrum, auction for which is currently on.

Bharti, Vodafone Essar, MTNL and BSNL hold over 6.2 Mhz spectrum in many of the circles. Bharti and Vodafone hold more than 10 MHz in many circles, including Mumbai and New Delhi.

As per TRAI proposals, for spectrum between 6.2 Mhz and 8 Mhz, operators have to pay one-time fee discovered by 3G auction. For spectrum 8 Mhz-10 Mhz, the fee is 1.3 times of 3G price.

Sarma said this outgo would also come down if the proposed licence fee of 6 per cent comes into picture. In that case, the net outgo for Bharti would be Rs 1,500 crore.

Responding to reactions of the operators, Sarma said "recommendations are not anti-consumer... There is no impact on prices. We would keep track of any unwarranted change on price due to these proposals".

All TRAI proposals need to be approved by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to be made a law. — PTI

Chandigarh, May 13
Jaypee Cement is on an expansion mode. By the end of this financial year, the cement manufacturing division of Jaiprakash Associates Ltd proposes to increase its manufacturing capacity by 12 million tonnes at an estimated cost of Rs 10,000 crore.

Talking to TNS on the sidelines of a dealers’ meet held at Zirakpur, near here, today, Rahul Kumar, COO, Jaypee Cement, said the company is setting up greenfield projects at Kutch region in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. “We hope that all these plants would be commissioned by March 2011, thus helping us raise our capacity from the present 22 million tonnes per annum to 36 million tonnes per annum. Of these new projects, the largest facility is being set up at Andhra Pradesh with a capacity of 12,000 tonnes clinkers or 5 million tonnes of cement per annum,” he said.

Since the cement business contributes almost 50 per cent of the total revenues for Jaiprakash Associates, the company has been investing heavily in this business over the past one year. The company has set aside Rs 10,000 crore for expanding its cement business. With this expansion, the total contribution of the cement division to the Jaiprakash Group would increase to 60 per cent, and also help the company increase its market share from the present 6 per cent to around 14 per cent.

With the increase in capacity, the company is also looking at exploring new markets for export. “We are already exporting cement (300,000 tonnes per annum) to Nepal. Now, we will start exports to countries in West Asia and Africa,” he said.

Kumar said as of now they had 16 cement plants across the country, of which two were commissioned this year itself. These two plants at Bagha and Bagheri (in district Solan) have an annual capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per annum, and these will be primarily catering to the demand for cement in Punjab. “The monthly demand for cement in Punjab is around 6 lakh tonnes, and we are supplying 60,000 tonnes. Interestingly, the 3.5 million tonnes of cement being manufactured here will now be packed and sold in innovative packaging (PP bags), which helps prevent spillage and ensures quality of cement in adverse weather conditions. This packaging will initially be used only for cement bags being sold in Punjab,” he added.

Gurgaon, May 13
Acting on a contempt of court petition filed by Brain Logistics Pvt Ltd (a warehousing management service provider), a Gurgaon court has ordered that a registered copy of the contempt petition be sent to Hero Honda Motors Ltd (HHML) and its certain top functionaries and a notice of the same be issued to Surya Enterprises, another service provider engaged by HHML.

It is pertinent to mention here that a few days ago, the court of Gurgaon Additional District and Sessions Judge YS Rathore had restrained Hero Honda Motors from dealing with the employees provided to it by Brain Logistics Pvt Ltd (which had been providing warehousing management service to Hero Honda) through any other contractor.

The court passed the said orders after considering a petition filed by Brain Logistics. The petitioners maintained that they had been providing warehousing management service to Hero Honda Motors’ SPD plant in Gurgaon since October, 2001, and had nearly 500 employees on their payroll.

“However, in April, 2010, all employees provided by Brain Logistics to the said Hero Honda plant were usurped by the company management through a new purported contractor,” the petition asserted.

It further alleged that the company was trying to transfer the workmen provided to it by Brain Logistics to another contractor.

In the plea, the petitioner prayed the court to pass an order restraining respondent company (Hero Honda Motors), its representatives, directors, agents and contractors etc from utilising the manpower (provided to it by Brains Logistics) through another contractor by excluding the petitioner and/or transferring it to another contractor.

However, Brains Logistics Pvt Ltd prayed before the court that the HHML management had violated the aforesaid orders by disbursing the wages to the employees and issuing pay slips in the names of Surya Enterprises.

The petitioner pointed out that this amounted to contempt of court and requested the court to initiate appropriate action under Sections 10 to 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, against the respondents for "wilfully disobeying" the court's order.

New Delhi, May 13
Indian flagship overseas explorer ONGC Videsh Ltd and its partners have signed an agreement to develop a $20 billion oil project in Venezuela that will give energy-deficient India 3.6 million tonnes a year of crude.

On Wednesday, OVL and its partners inked an agreement with Venezuelan national oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PdV) for the development and production of hydrocarbons from the Carabobo project in the Orinoco region of Venezuela.

The joint venture agreement was signed in Caracas at a ceremony attended by the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez Frias, a statement by IOC, a member of the consortium, said.

Spain's Repsol-YPF SA, Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) of Malaysia and OVL, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, each hold an 11 per cent stake in the consortium that will produce 400,000 barrels of oil per day.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Oil India (OIL) will each have 3.5 per cent interest in the joint venture firm to develop the Carabobo 1 Norte and Carabobo 1 Centro blocks (collectively called Carabobo-1), located in the Orino Heavy Oil Belt.

The Corporacion Venezolana del Petroleo (CVP), a unit of PdV, Venezuela's state oil company, will hold the remaining 60 per cent equity. About half of the production from the joint venture, called PetroCarabobo SA, will be upgraded into light crude oil for export. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Oil falls to near $75
Singapore: Oil prices fell to near $75 a barrel on Thursday in Asia as traders mulled signs of tepid US crude demand against growing consumption in developing economies. Benchmark crude for June delivery was down 27 cents to $75.38 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. — AP

Gujarat NRE Coke to invest Rs 1,000 cr in AP
Kolkata: Gujarat NRE Coke said it would invest around Rs 1,000 crore in an upcoming one million-tonne coke plant, besides a 60-MW power utility, in Andhra Pradesh. "We will invest Rs 800 crore to Rs 1,000 crore in the AP plant," Gujarat NRE Coke chairman Arun Jagatramka said, adding that acquisition of land was underway and work on the project would begin by December this year.— PTI

Nitesh Estates plunges 6pc on debut
Mumbai: The Bangalore-based realty firm, Nitesh Estates, tanked nearly 6 per cent on the BSE over its issue price on the day of its listing on Thursday. Shares of Nitesh settled down 5.68 per cent at Rs 50.95 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, over the issue price of Rs 54. — PTI

SBI offer
Chandigarh: On the auspicious occasion of ‘Akshay Tritiya’ on May 16, SBI is offering 1 per cent discount on purchase of gold coins till May 19. SK Sehgal, CGM, State Bank of India, Chandigarh Circle, said gold coins of 999.9 per gm purity are available at 67 branches in almost all major centres of Chandigarh Circle. Gold coins are available in the denomination of 2gm, 4 gm, 5gm, 8gm, 10gm, 20gm and 50gm. — TNS

HCC hives off IT biz
Mumbai: Engineering and construction firm Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) on Thursday said it has hived off its IT division Highbar Technologies Ltd in order to focus on the technology infrastructure industry. Highbar Technologies has emerged as an end-to-end solution provider for the IT infrastructure industry, with in-depth experience in information technology, HCC said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.— PTI

Greatship plans IPO
Mumbai: Greatship (India) Ltd, a subsidiary of Great Eastern Shipping Company, on Thursday said it plans to tap the capital market through an initial public offer and has filed a draft prospectus with market regulator SEBI. The company, however, did not reveal about the amount it aims to raise through the IPO.— PTI

REC to raise Rs 21,000 cr
New Delhi: State-owned Rural Electrification Corp (REC) will raise Rs 21,000 crore from the market in 2010-11, as part of its resource mobilisation plans. This fund raising would comprise $500 million of external commercial borrowings (ECBs). REC provides finances to power projects in the country and has set a loan disbursement target of Rs 19,000 crore for in the current fiscal.— PTI