Engineers India eyes non-fossil fuel business, overseas for new phase of growth

New Delhi: State-owned project consultancy company Engineers India Ltd (EIL) is eyeing renewable energy projects as well as overseas market as it pivots shift from the construction of fossil-fuel plants for its next phase of growth, its chairman and managing director Vartika Shukla said.

Starting in 1965 as an answer to cut reliance on foreign companies for doing engineering and other work for the massive projects that a newly independent nation undertook, EIL is building the country's first biorefinery, which will use bamboo to produce ethanol, and moving into green hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel.

The company is also looking at projects overseas particularly in the Middle East and Africa. "While oil will continue to exist for the next few decades, we are preparing for life after oil in a world looking at transition," she said.

From bringing technology for upgrade of petrol and diesel to Euro-VI (BS-VI) emission specifications, to upgrade of oil refineries, petrochemical integration and niche chemicals, EIL has in recent times added biofuels and green hydrogen to the list of industries where it provides consultancy right from design and feasibility studies to engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance.

EIL has also started giving engineering and construction consultancy for fertilizer plants as it believes the demand for crop nutrients will always be there. It has also entered the infrastructure segment and is providing consultancy for airport building.

From preparing a feasibility report for setting up a bamboo-based biorefinery project in Assam to giving consultancy services for the Jewar airport being built outside Delhi, EIL is building capabilities outside of the fossil fuels, she said adding the firm is also doing data centre projects, Leh Airport, Fintech University & Technological Park, Horticulture Marketing and restoration of heritage buildings.

It is also providing technology support and consultancy services for production of bio-ATF for MRPL, she said.

EIL is doing technological tie-ups like a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) it has signed with German firm Deep for building salt cavern storages of crude oil.

Projects at hand include expansion of the Vizag oil refinery, building a new highly-petrochemical intensive oil refinery at Barmer in Rajasthan, and one of the biggest petrochemical integration projects of HPCL Mittal Energy Ltd at Bhatinda in Punjab.

Overseas, it provided consultancy for the Dangote oil refinery project in Nigeria having total capital outlay of almost USD 20 billion with the highest single train refining capacity in the world. The company is also providing project management consultancy (PMC) services for a 1.5 million tonnes Mongol refinery project in Mongolia, she said.

Recently, EIL expanded its business in Guyana securing a 300 MW power plant project, she said adding EIL has strengthened its office in Abu Dhabi to cater to projects in the entire region.

EIL has also worked on data centres for State Bank of India, IIM Nagpur campus, and restoration of heritage sites like Khajuraho and Sun temple of Konark in Odisha.

EIL has also marked its footprint in the biofuels project's implementation. It is providing its services in the implementation of one of the largest capacities biorefinery project in India for Assam Biorefinery Pvt Ltd and is playing a crucial role in providing technological solutions for decarbonizing the aviation sector in collaboration with CSIR-IIP, Dehradun.

"We want to be a global leader offering total solutions."