• GVK Power buys L T s 17 stake in Bangalore Int l Airport: The GVK Power has acquired 17% in Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) from Larsen & Toubro for Rs 686 crore. The stake was acquired through its subsidiary and the acquisition was priced at Rs 105 a share. With this acquisition, GVK will now hold 29% stake in BIAL. The deal values BIAL at around Rs 4,040 crore. Speaking on the acquisition, GV Krishna Reddy, Chairman and MD, GVK Power & Infrastructure, says, “The acquisition of additional stake in BIAL is in line with our objective of expanding GVK’s presence in the airports business.” GVK is India’s leading infrastructure developer and also the lead promoter of the Mumbai International Airport. It had earlier approved the acquisition of 4,61,52,000 shares, or 12% of the paid-up equity share capital, of BIAL at a total cost of Rs. 484 crore from Flughafen Zuerich AG through GVK Airport Developers Pvt GVKADPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.

• India to begin extraction of coal through gasification– Amid international pressure to control environnment pollution and maximize the production of coal, the Centre has decided to venture into underground coal gasification in a major way. India will be the first among developing countries to start such a venture. Underground coal gasification is an industrial process, which enables coal to be converted into product gas. In the first phase, the government has finalised three coal blocks in Jharkhand, Maharastra and Orissa to start gasification work within a year or so. The underground gasification technique is a far better one than overcast and underground mining. “This will maximize coal production; mitigate carbon emission and other risks.

• Main vessel of PFBR installed, reactor to go live in Sept 2011:- ACC, In a major milestone for the country in its nuclear power initiative, the main vessel of India’s first 500-MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), being developed at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam, was installed on Saturday, marking a significant step towards completing the construction of the country’s first atomic power plant using a breeder reactor. “The main vessel of the PFBR was installed on Saturday as the weather conditions were favourable. All the load tests and mock trials were completed successfully before the installation. There was a slight delay earlier due to bad weather. The vessel had to be lifted well above civil structures and high wind can cause oscillation of the vessel while in space and create problems for accurate lowering into the safety vessel. But with dry weather for the last three days, we decided to install the component,”