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Business Standard 2009,
Bangalore, India, May 04, 2009 - QuEST Global, which
provides outsourced engineering services and manufacturing,
which till now concentrated on aerospace, power generation,
oil and gas among other sectors is sniffing business
opportunities in the engineering, procurement and
construction (EPC) of associated facilities of nuclear power
plants.
The firm that saw $85-86 million (unaudited) revenues in
FY2009, is in talks with a couple of EPC firms that
specialise in providing engineering services to nuclear
power plants. QuEST hopes this vertical could help drive its
future growth. It is presently concentrating on having
engineers with the capability to work on nuclear engineering
projects.
As a first step, QuEST has hired a vice-president based in
the US who is from the nuclear industry, to drive business
growth. He is also providing training to the team based in
India on safety codes pertaining to the industry. The firm
now has a seed team of 20 persons and aims to build the
team.
“These engineers will have the expertise to run the
associated facilities of a nuclear power plant,” said Bejoy
George, chief marketing officer, QuEST Engineering and
Software Technologies.
Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) had earlier formulated a
programme for increasing the installed nuclear capacity.
This programme envisages 20 000 Mw of installed capacity by
2020. India’s thorium deposits are expected to fuel the
fast-breeder reactors. QuEST is looking to develop
capabilities to work with EPC firms from Russia, France,
US/Japan that could win the contracts to build the fast
breeder reactors.
About $15 million has been spent from internal accruals by
the firm on its manufacturing facilities in Krishnarajapuram
in Bangalore, in Aerospace Precision India (API) and its SEZ.
API, a 50:50 joint venture between QuEST and Magellan
Aerospace, which provides special processes for aerospace
parts, will see investments of $2 million over the next 24
months.
At its Belgaum SEZ which is up and running, QuEST has set up
a 200-people facility, and for this facility about 75 have
been trained. By June, the firm will have the rest of them
in place in Belgaum. Meanwhile, QuEST is looking to invest
another $25 million over the next one to one-and-a-half
years, the slowdown not withstanding.
The amount has been sanctioned by the State Bank of India.
Source:
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/quest-seeks-to-provide-support-to-n-power-plants/356970/
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