Singapore's USEL Commits $17.5 Billion for Infrastructure, Port and Power Projects in Gujarat

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--At the recently concluded Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit 2009 held at Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Universal Success Enterprises Limited (USEL) (Singapore) signed three memoranda of understanding with the Gujarat state government. Under these agreements, USEL has made a commitment to invest close to $17.5 billion during the next decade in the infrastructure sector of the state. The investment would largely benefit the industrial and urban infrastructure sector, thermal power generation, and the seaports. The projects are expected to generate employment for more than 50,000 people.

The company will invest about $205 million during the next two years from its own internal resources. Anticipating an improvement in the economy, USEL intends to raise debt and equity in an effort to attract large investments after 2011.

About $10 billion of the committed investment would be used to establish a 10,000-megawatt (MW) thermal power plant. Efforts to locate a suitable site for the plant are currently under way. Imported high calorific coal would be transported from the company's captive mines in Indonesia and used as fuel in the proposed mega-thermal power plant. The coal would be brought in through dedicated port terminals that are being developed as part of a port project that also includes the development of infrastructure required to transport bulk cargo for the power plants. The port will later be upgraded to handle all kinds of commercial cargo and is expected to handle about 80,000 tons of bulk cargo per day. The cost of the port project is estimated to be $144 million, which will be spent during a period of three to four years. Land and shoreline are currently being identified and pre-feasibility studies are under way.

The mixed-use industrial and urban infrastructure project is estimated to cost about $616 million and is scheduled to take about 10 years to set up. The project will be developed at the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) near Ahmedabad and will be initially spread over an area of 5,000 acres. The project will be the nation's first "International City," completely focused on foreign trade, investment, and knowledge-led economic activities. It will concentrate on high-tech manufacturing, media, logistics, and education. PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (New York, New York) is currently conducting prefeasibility studies for the project. Large players such as Jurong International Pte Limited (Singapore) and Sembcorp Industries Limited (SIN:U96) (Singapore), among others, will be involved in the project at a later stage.

The USEL group, promoted by Mr. Prasoon Mukherjee, is involved in the development of infrastructure, real estate, seaports, thermal power, energy trading, manufacturing, and hospitality. The organization has businesses operating in several countries in the Asia Pacific region, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. USEL began its operations in India in late 2003 with real estate projects in West Bengal and has a strong presence in the state. USEL maintains high international standards across all of its large-scale projects by collaborating with internationally reputed designers and consultants. The company will be working with the Salim Group (Jakarta, Indonesia) while executing the projects in Gujarat.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.