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BPCL to expand retail presence
Bangalore: Bharat Petroleum Corporation is planning to expand the number of its retail outlets across the country according to a top official of the company. The company is said to be looking at putting up these outlets in 600 to 800 strategic sites.

While 250 of these outlets will be in North and West zones, 200 outlets will open in the South and 100 in the East zone, the official said. In the last three years BPCL has expanded its outlets by 33 per cent from 2,000 in 2003 to 6,600 at present.

BPCL has recently launched the high-octane petrol, Speed 97, for high-end cars in one of its outlets. Speed 97 has specially designed components for "high-performance engines like that in Opel Optra, Hyundai Accent, Palio, Porsche, Mercedes Benz and Ferrari according to the company.
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L&T bags Rs.1,000 crore order from ONGC
Mumbai: Engineering company Larsen & Toubro has received a Rs1,000 crore turnkey project order from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). The order is for work on its four well platforms and interconnecting pipelines for Mumbai High North and Bassein fields.

Three of the platforms, with six wells each, will have the tripod design and will be engineered by the company's JV engineering company, Valdel, in collaboration with Worlex Parsons, USA. The fourth platform with nine wells will be structured to handle corrosive 'sour' gas from ONGC's Bassein field.

The platform will be constructed of special material such as Duplex stainless steel and Incolloy cladded material for the topsides and pipeline, L&T informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The critical structures for the project will be delivered from L&T's modular fabrication facility at Hazira, that are being expanded to meet the increasing demands from ONGC and its overseas clients, it said.

In February 2004, L&T bagged an Rs1,006 crore turnkey project from ONGC for nine new wellhead platforms.
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Semindia to invest US$3bn in semi conductor facility
New Delhi: Semindia, a consortium of Indians living abroad, is planning to invest US$3bn in setting up an advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility in the country with technology sourced from US-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Vinod Agarwal, CEO of Semindia, said Wednesday that the public-private partnership is expected to take-off next year and will lead to a world-class industry in India which will meet both domestic and global demands of semiconductor chips for cell phones, PCs and set-top boxes.

"The central government as well as the state government (where the plant will be located) can be equity partners in the project," Agarwal added.

AMD officials said the US company may also pick up a stake in the proposed plant.
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Bharat Hotels takes over Grand Eastern
Kolkata: Hotelier Lalit Suri on Wednesday announced the acquisition of 90 per cent stake in the Great Eastern Hotel, Asia's oldest hotel, from the West Bengal government for Rs52 crore.
The hotel, which in its prime was known as jewel of the East, would now be known as the Grand Great Eastern Hotel, Suri told reporters.

The remaining 10 per cent stake in the hotel, which has been retained by the government, too would be transferred to Bharat Hotels at a future date, he said.

Suri said he would spend another Rs120 crore to give a facelift to the 230-room hotel, built in 1840, to convert it into a five-star deluxe property.

The hotel, which had been making losses for years, is expected to be back in business in the next couple of years.
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Rane receives additional orders from Volkswagen
Chennai: Rane Engine Valves has received more orders from Volkswagen, Germany, which will generate an additional euro 2.2 million a year. The company already has revenue of euro 2 million from sales of engine valves.

The company proposes to raise its capacity at Hyderabad and is in the final stages of deciding on a location for its fifth plant to meet the future requirements of domestic and overseas customers.
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Coromandel Fertilisers to set up pesticide formulation unit in J&K
Mumbai: Murugappa Group company, Coromandel Fertilisers on Wednesday said that it would set up a unit in Jammu and Kashmir.

The company markets around two million tonnes of phosphatic fertilisers. It also markets phosphogypsum and sulphur pastilles.

The fertiliser company has multi-locational production facilities and markets its products all over India and exports pesticides to various countries across the globe.
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Ansal Properties signs MoU with UP Govt. for hi-tech city in Lucknow
New Delhi: Ansal Properties & Infrastructure (APIL) based in Delhi has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Uttar Pradesh Government to develop a hi-tech city in Lucknow. Company officials said the township may be completed in five to six years.

According to a press release from the company the hi-tech city will have 24-hour power back-up, optical fibre and satellite communication facilities. Forty per cent of the total land area in the hi-tech city, will be earmarked for residential purposes, 20 per cent each for green belt and roads, eight per cent for commercial buildings such as malls and other shopping complexes and the remaining for the development of infotech and bio-tech parks, transport, communication and recreational facilities.

The project would entail an investment of Rs2,600 crore and would create assets worth over Rs4,400 crore, generating more than 1 lakh jobs in the area, it added.
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Government mulls BSNL, MTNL merger
New Delhi: The government is mulling over the merger of MTNL and BSNL, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Considering the complexity of the issues involved in the restructuring exercise, the government is carefully weighing all options before taking a decision so that interest of all the stakeholders are protected and the ultimate objectives of the restructuring exercise are met," minister of state for communications and IT Shakeel Ahmad.
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Air Sahara to start flights to London from Jan. 6
New Delhi: Air Sahara announced Wednesday the launch of its Delhi-London flight starting from January 6. As an introductory offer the airline is offering a promotional package of a free return ticket on its domestic network or a to and fro trip to Singapore.

The promotional economy class fare on Delhi-London sector would start from Rs28,500 excluding taxes, while the Business Class fare would cost Rs1,20,000 and Premier Business class Rs1,70,000.

The promotional package also includes special companion- free passes for each ticket on the Premium Economy class as well as the Premier Business class. The packages can availed of by purchasing the Delhi-London ticket before December 31 and travel by March 31.

The flight would be operated by a brand new Boeing 767 aircraft in a four-class configuration on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
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Lankan Airways to gain in tourism from India, China
Beijing: With India and China's leisure and business travel segment booming, SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka, is all set to promote tourism traffic from the two countries.
The Airline currently operates thrice a week from Colombo to Beijing via Bangkok, a service which was started from June this year.

SriLankan Airlines also operates 10 daily flights to various destinations in India, including connections to southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnat aka, apart from New Delhi.

SriLankan Airlines is also focussing on the huge family travel and leisure market from China to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, as well as providing Chinese travellers with convenient connections to the Middle East and Europe.
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Bombay Dyeing to set up textile unit at Pune
Mumbai: Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Company has filed an industrial entrepreneur memorandum with the Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry for setting up a textile processing unit in Pune district.
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O2 launches Microsoft-based handset, the Xda Atom
New Delhi: O2, the cellular handset maker has launched the "world's smallest multimedia PDA-phone Xda Atom in the Indian market. The phone has multiple features specially designed to suit the requirements of professionals.

According to the company the mobile works on the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system and offers a range of services such as music, audio-books, videos and camera. The mobile also puts more computing power into users' hand through enhanced features in Microsoft Office programmes.

The handset is priced at Rs38,888 and has built-in wireless LAN offering smooth connectivity enabling top speed data transfer.
The device weighing 140 grams, could help view PowerPoint files, create tables and charts using Word and Excel and also access e-Mail accounts while on the move.
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Samsung to set up handset-manufacturing plant in Haryana
Chandigarh: Samsung Telecommunications plans to set up a US$15mn mobile handset manufacturing facility in Haryana.

The announcement comes close on the heels of mobile handset leader Nokia announcing plans to set up a manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu in India. A Taiwanese handset maker too is in talks with New Delhi for setting up shop in the country.
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Spice Telecom seeks entry into NLD and ILD segments
New Delhi: Spice Telecom is planning to enter the national long distance (NLD) and international long distance (ILD) telephony segments. The company is waiting for detailed guidelines from the Government in this regard.

Earlier this month, the Government had announced a reduction in entry fee for NLD and ILD players to a uniform Rs2.5 crore from the existing Rs100 crore and Rs25 crore respectively.

It had also cut the revenue share to 6 per cent from 15 per cent of adjusted gross revenues with effect from January 1, 2006.

The company has requested the Government to have a re-look at the high entry fee.
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MTNL video services for Rs.300 per month
New Delhi: MTNL is considering offering video services to its subscribers at a rate of Rs300 per month through the same line on which fixed line telephony is being provided, the company informed the Lok Sabha today.

MTNL is capable of supporting triple play services namely voice, data and video simultaneously on the same telephone wires, the minister of state of communication and IT, Shakeel Ahmed said. According to him the video service will start by March.
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Heinz ties up with Lankan firm to distribute Dilmah tea
New Delhi: Heinz India said on Wednesday that it has entered into a partnership with Sri Lankan tea maker MJF Teas to distribute its 'Dilmah' brand of tea in the country and this would complement food products of the company.

Heinz would leverage its nationwide network of sales and distribution to market Dilmah tea across 15 major cities of India and gradually expand to tier II cities in phase 1, a company release said here.

The company would distribute and promote a wide variety of flavoured teas from Dilmah, including the launch of Dilmah Raga, which has been specially developed for the Indian market, it said.

In addition to traditional tea-bag format, the Dilmah Raga range would also come in a form of loose-leaf tea in several varieties.
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Kingfisher targets Jet passengers
Mumbai: With rumours that Vijay Mallya would acquire 100 per cent stake in Air Sahara, Kingfisher Airlines has launched an advertising campaign to catch privileged passengers of Jet Airways.

The company is offering six Kingfisher flight tickets at a cost of Rs26,999 under its Jet setting plan to members of Jet Airways privilege gold or platinum card.

Jet Airways has around five lakh customers under these schemes, which are offered to frequent fliers of the airline.
The offer is valid till March 31, 2006.
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