Jyoti Structures Wins Rs 949.35 Crore Power Grid HVDC Line Orders in Rajasthan

Jyoti Structures has won the first line packages we have seen awarded on Power Grid’s Barmer HVDC scheme: two lots worth a combined Rs 949.35 crore for the 800 kV bipole that runs from Barmer-II in Rajasthan to South Kalamb in Maharashtra. For anyone who owns foundation and earthmoving machines in western Rajasthan, this is where the demand from that scheme starts to turn into actual site work.

What Jyoti Structures announced

The company filed the awards with BSE before the market opened on Monday and followed with a press release, which the Free Press Journal and Business Upturn both reported with the same package split and term. It is Jyoti’s second big line award in four days. On 23 October it took a Rs 689.93 crore GETCO order for the 765 kV Pachchham-Saykha line in Gujarat, so its two new awards add up to Rs 1,639.28 crore.

What do two HVDC line lots mean for machine owners?

Start with the money split. Spread evenly, each lot is worth roughly Rs 12.5 crore a month over 38 months, and most of that pays for tower steel, conductor and insulators rather than site work. The machine work is in the foundations: hundreds of separate tower pits along a moving front, each dug, shuttered, concreted and backfilled before a tower goes up. That suits excavators in the mid-size classes and backhoe loaders that can be loaded and moved to the next location by evening. Big fixed plant does not fit this kind of job.

The desert changes the list. Tower locations on this route mostly have no haul road, so contractors grade access tracks first, and every cubic metre of foundation concrete needs water hauled in. Expect transit mixers or site batching kit and water bowsers to be booked as hard as the diggers. Unlike most of India, western Rajasthan has no monsoon shutdown for earthwork. Summer heat sets the working window instead, so machines on these lots could run for most of the year.

Then there is capacity. Jyoti now has a 42-month line in Gujarat and two 38-month lots in Rajasthan starting at about the same time, and KEC International is building its own Rs 2,872 crore of Power Grid 765 kV lines in Gujarat. All of these jobs need the same foundation gangs and the same machines.

Our take: line EPC companies usually sub-let foundation work by stretch, and that is where small fleet owners get paid. Owners with excavators and backhoe loaders near Barmer and Jaisalmer should expect hire enquiries before any purchase order shows up. Moving machines between scattered tower pits favours hiring over buying, as our power and renewable energy equipment guide explains.

FAQ

What order did Jyoti Structures win from Power Grid?

Two packages, TL01 and TL02, on the ±800 kV HVDC Bipole Barmer-II and South Kalamb transmission lines, worth Rs 474.85 crore and Rs 474.50 crore. The total is Rs 949.35 crore excluding GST, for turnkey supply, erection, testing and commissioning.

How long will the work take?

Each package has a completion period of 38 months from its Notification of Award, according to the company’s filing.

Which machines will the line need?

Mainly excavators and backhoe loaders for tower foundation pits, concrete and water haulage for foundations, graders for access tracks, and cranes or derricks for tower erection. Line length and tower count have not been disclosed, so fleet size cannot be estimated yet.

Related on DesiMachines: Power Grid wins the Barmer HVDC project

Source: Free Press Journal