Gail India to invest ₹6,000 cr in three years in renewables

MUMBAI: State-owned Gail India will invest ₹6,000 crore in the next three years in renewables, a top official said on Monday.

The investment can go up by an additional ₹20,000 crore by 2030, said Gail India chairman and managing director Manoj Jain.

Gail India director (finance) Rakesh Kumar Jain said the company, which reported a 112% jump in FY22 post-tax net profit at ₹10,364 crore, has outlined an overall capital expenditure plan of up to ₹40,000 crore in the next five years, which will cover a wide array of areas.

This will entail borrowings of up to ₹20,000 crore, while the rest will come from internal accruals, the director added. Its chairman said it is looking at almost 3 GW of renewables capacity by 2030, which will include 1 GW to start within the next three years. The company is undertaking a liquid hydrogen capacity addition right now and the progress done on the prototype will influence its overall investments, Manoj Jain said, adding that a call on the same will be taken after 18 months.

Jain said it is in the process of procuring a 10 MW facility for liquid hydrogen, which is slated to be the largest in the country and is on the lookout for the electrolyser.

In FY22, it invested ₹7,700 crore across all activities, which included pipelines for the core transmission business and petrochemicals, he added.

Meanwhile, the chairman said GAIL is awaiting a nod from the government on its asset monetisation proposals and added that it expects to monetise up to ₹4,000 crore of assets in FY23.

On the exploration and production side, its activities will be limited to an asset being pursued in neighbouring Myanmar where it is investing money, Jain added.