Mumbai, August 4, 2003:The Gulf-based subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) has bagged a Rs.42 crore order in Oman to build a flyover at Al Khoud for the Muscat Municipality of the Sultanate of Oman. The flyover, also known as an interchange or an elevated corridor, will be built by L&T Oman LLC, with technical support from ECC, the Construction Division of L&T. Parsons International & Co. LLC will provide consultancy services.

The project involves construction, within a period of just 16 months, of an inter-connecting corridor with two post-tensioned cast in situ box girder bridges at the Al Khoud Interchange. When complete in November 2004, the flyover will be a three-lane elevated corridor running for over 3.2 km.

Announcing the award of this new contract, Mr. A Ramakrishna, President (Operations) and Deputy Managing Director, L&T, said, "This is the second major civic structure we will be building in Oman. Recently we completed the first public access tunnel - a 130 metre-long and 6.16 metre dia., horse-shoe shaped tunnel at the Barr al Jissah Resort. We had completed the project 11 days ahead of schedule." Mr. Ramakrishna stated that such projects were "technologically challenging and also provided greater visibility to L&T in key global markets".

Within the domestic steel sector, meanwhile, L&T built upon its impressive construction record by winning prestigious orders from India's premier steel manufacturer, Tata Steel. TISCO has awarded an L&T-led consortium the turnkey contract for a 2.3 million tonnes per annum steel sinter plant in Jamshedpur. The order valued at Rs.235 crore was awarded to the consortium, comprising L&T and the German steel plant major and world leader in sintering technology, Outokumpu-Lurgi Metallurgie. The sinter plant forms part of Tata Steel's proposed 1 million tpa expansion project. L&T's share of the turnkey contract is Rs.157.92 crore, including main package civil, structural and auxiliary work. The share of Outokumpu-Lurgi Metallurgie is valued at 13.68 million Euro.

L&T and its Construction Division, ECC has been associated with TISCO for over two decades in all their major expansion programmes.
The schedule for the complete sinter plant project right from basic engineering to commissioning has been pegged at 17 months. Such a tight delivery schedule has not been achieved anywhere in the world, so far.

Yet another steel sector highlight is the high-tech blast furnace revamp order. The order, valued at Rs79.80 crore involves rebuilding the entire blast furnace, including the electrical section, with a critical shut-down period of just 85 days. Reputed steel plant specialists, SMS-Demag of Germany will provide the technology for the revamped blast furnace. It may be recalled that in May 2002, L&T had set a new benchmark for blast furnace modernisation by rebuilding Blast Furnace 'F' at Tata Steel in a record time-frame, including a shut-down of 105 days. The new target will improve upon L&T's own record for accelerated completion by 20 days.

Commenting on the repeat order, Mr A. Ramakrishna said: "It reiterates the customer's confidence in us and in our capability to meet stringent deadlines."