Diversified business conglomerate Videocon Group today said it is keen to set up a 1,000 MW thermal power project in Punjab with an investment of Rs. 5,000 crore.
“If the opportunity is given to us by the state government we will set up a 1,000 MW power project here involving an outlay of Rs. 5,000 crore which will help in meeting the rising demand for electricity in the State,” Chairman Videocon Group Venugopal Dhoot told reporters here on Thursday.
Dhoot said he would meet Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal within next 10 days to discuss group’s investment in infrastructure space in Punjab.
He said the company was already setting up three power projects in Pipava, Chhattisgarh and Kolkata.
On a question about the acquisition of Phillips’s consumer electronics division, Dhoot said talks are on between the companies as part of Groups multi-brand strategy.
Meanwhile, Videocon Group also launched its GSM mobile services in Punjab and Haryana today where the company plans to invest Rs. 800 crore on further expanding the network.
“We will leverage on group’s established brand equity and vast retail reach combined with the best of breed partners to offer compelling services to our customers in Punjab and Haryana,” Dhoot said.
The company will leverage a network of around 2,400 BTS at the time of launch to deliver services to subscribers across all major towns, national and state highways.
“We have already invested Rs. 800 crore in rolling out mobile services in Punjab and Haryana and we will further invest Rs. 800 crore in these states to expand the network,” Company’s Senior Vice-President Arvind Bali said.
The brand will have a retail presence in over 20,000 outlets in Punjab and plans to cover 24,000 outlets within 6 months, while in Haryana it will have 10,000 retail outlets and would cover 20,000 outlets within the year, he said.
With the company eyeing a pan-India presence by September this year, Videocon will be recruiting 20,000 employees in its mobile venture.
The company had envisaged an investment of Rs. 14,000 crore in telecom services to attain 10 crore customers in the next three years. Videocon has partnered with Nokia Siemens Networks, Cisco, IBM, Amdocs, Gemalto, Comverse, Comviva, Avaya, Acision, Wipro, Oracle, Unisys and Huawei for its mobile venture.
