International Finance Corporation (IFC) is lending $5 million to Hyderabad-based water services company Vishwa Infrastructures and Services Pvt Ltd for its public-private partnership (PPP) project in the water and waste-water space. The funds will be used by Vishwa’s subsidiary to increase access to clean water and improve sewage treatment in two towns of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Vishwa Utilities Pvt Ltd, in which Vishwa Infrastructures has 89 per cent stake while the rest is held by Kolkata’s Electrosteel Castings, is working on two projects which are expected to cost about $39 million. The projects are among the first few water and waste-water public-private partnerships in India, IFC stated in a release.
Vishwa Utilities has partnered with Khandwa Municipal Corporation in Madhya Pradesh to help bring reliable water supply to its 200,000 residents by investing in water transmission, treatment, distribution, billing and collection services. In Maharashtra’s Kolhapur town, Vishwa has a long-term waste-water treatment concession with Kolhapur Municipal Corporation, under the government’s National River Conservation Programme.
“Improved, reliable and clean water supply will become available to Khandwa residents and better waste-water treatment will reduce the disposal of untreated effluent in the river in Kolhapur. IFC is keen to participate in similar projects and is currently in discussion with other players to undertake water infrastructure development in India,” said Anita George, IFC’s infrastructure director for Asia.
Vishwa Infrastructures, which focuses on water and waste water sectors, had raised Rs 60 crore from Axis Infrastructure Fund in September, 2008, and another Rs 100 crore from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in February this year.
For FY11, Vishwa Infrastructures reported 47 per cent increase in turnover to Rs 600 crore, with profit before taxes rising 42.7 per cent to Rs 63.8 crore, according to its website.