Bajel Projects Transmission Order: Rs 700 Crore of POWERGRID Lines

Bajel Projects has picked up two transmission line packages from POWERGRID worth more than Rs 700 crore between them, and the useful part for an equipment buyer is not the headline number. A line job spends most of its money on steel, conductor and hardware. What it spends on machines is scattered along a few hundred kilometres of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, in pits, and mostly in the dry months.

What Bajel announced

The company said in a statement on 10 August that it had won both packages, classifying TL06 as a Mega order and TL02 as an UltraMega order under its own disclosure bands, which put a Mega order at Rs 300-400 crore and an UltraMega order above Rs 400 crore. Those two bands add up to the stated combined figure, which is as close to a split as Bajel has given. POWERGRID won the Part-A scheme itself through tariff-based competitive bidding earlier this year and is now placing the build packages.

What does a 765kV line actually pull in machines?

Not what a road or a metro package pulls. A transmission line is a long string of small, separate foundation pits joined by temporary access tracks, so the fleet is backhoe loader led, with compact excavators and breakers where the corridor hits rock. Concrete arrives from small mobile batching plants and transit mixers rather than a central plant. Cranes show up at tower erection, not through the job. The steady earthmoving work is the access tracks, which need compaction and grading, then need it again after every monsoon.

The 765kV package is the heavier of the two on that count. A 765kV double-circuit tower carries far bigger foundations than a 400kV one: deeper pits, more concrete per location and, on the wetter stretches, piling instead of open footings. If you own iron along the Raigarh-Jamshedpur belt, TL02 is the one that matters to you.

Then read the money correctly. Rs 700 crore of line EPC is not Rs 700 crore of civil work. Tower steel, conductor, insulators and hardware take the bulk of a line package, and Bajel subcontracts foundation and erection gangs locally rather than carrying a large earthmoving fleet of its own. The addressable hire market is small-fleet work for regional subcontractors, spread thin over 27 and 33 months, not one large mobilisation.

Our take: steady, unglamorous hire demand in a belt that already has plenty of machines working coal and steel logistics. Schedules of two-and-a-half to three years across a monsoon-heavy region mean the real foundation season runs roughly October to May, so quote on utilisation across that window rather than on the contract value. Rates will not firm just because a big number was announced.

FAQ

Is the full Rs 700 crore spent on construction machinery?

No. On a transmission line package, tower steel, conductor, insulators and line hardware account for the larger share. Civil foundation work, access tracks and erection are a smaller slice of the contract value, which is why a line award of this size supports fewer machines than a road or metro package of the same value.

Which package is worth more to an equipment owner?

TL02, the 765kV double-circuit line. Higher-voltage towers need substantially larger foundations, so there is more excavation and more concrete per tower location than on the 400kV LILO work under TL06.

When is machine demand likely to start?

Bajel has not published a mobilisation date. On line packages the sequence is survey and route clearance first, then foundation gangs, so hire enquiries typically follow the award by some months rather than starting immediately. The stated schedules are 27 months for TL06 and 33 months for TL02.

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Source: T&D India