Monday, June 03, 2013: In a sign of first real movement in India’s growing solar power sector, diversified power sector company, Jakson Power has announced its decision to invest Rs 750 crore in its solar business over the next three years.
The move comes at a time when the Indian government, grappling with a massive shortfall in power capacity addition has been looking to incentivize the solar power industry. At present, India produces 22,000 megawatt of power of which about 40 per cent comes from renewable sources of energy like solar and wind energy.
Jakson Power also said that besides solar energy, the company would also look at investments in EPC generating sets and hospitality, where the first investments are likely to materialize by the end of 2013.
“We intend to make investments of about Rs 7500 million in the next three to four years. The company has made invested around Rs 3000 million in nearly last two years,” says Sameer Gupta, MD, Jakson Power Solutions.
Incidentally, the company has already taken its first tentative step towards a larger foray into solar power with a 20 MW plant in Rajasthan, where the capacity is likely to be increased to 100 MW over the next three years.
Where plans of investment in the hospitality sector are concerned, Gupta clarified that his firm is in the process of building three boutique hotels, which will initially run on a small scale with 100 rooms each. All three properties will come up in newly upcoming industrial towns-one each in Gujarat and Maharashtra, while the location of the third is yet to be finalized. “The first hotel is likely to be ready by December this year,” Gupta says.
Also, says Gupta, the company is looking at exploiting growth prospects in the solar segment outside India where plans of developing projects in countries of Africa and Middle East are on the anvil. “Currently we are about Rs 1,350 crore company. Our aim is to become Rs 2,500 crore company at least in the next three to four years,” he said.
