State-run EPC company Engineers India Ltd (EIL) is under discussion with domestic and international stakeholders for collaboration for setting up conventional nuclear power plants and small modular reactors, the company’s chairperson and managing director Vartika Shukla said.

The move comes amid the government’s efforts to increase the country’s nuclear energy capacity to 100 GW by 2047 from the current 8 GW. Many public and private players are now considering venturing into the nuclear energy sector. 

“We are in dialogue with the stakeholders on this. Both the so-called conventional nuclear space as well as SMRs (small modular reactors). Also, it (nuclear) is a difficult area to penetrate. We did the Kudankulam plant. We are doing some small work for the Gorakhpur plant for Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. We have made some little inroads into the nuclear sector. We will see how to work that out further. But our aspirations will be converted to reality because we are in conversation at many fronts,” Shukla said. The company would likely look after the span design, engineering, and project management consultancy services for the nuclear energy projects, she added.

EIL is also in the process of constructing an LPG storage facility for the state-owned downstream company HPCL in Mangaluru and plans to operationalise it by the second quarter of FY26. The facility, built inside hard granite caverns, at a cost of Rs 850-900 crore, can store up to 80,000 metric tonne of LPG. EIL is also conducting a feasibility study to determine the capacity of the salt caverns in and around Bikaner, Rajasthan, with plans to turn it into crude storage units.

In addition, EIL is looking to expand its office in the United Arab Emirates owing to a major rise in orders. The company has secured Rs 190 crore of orders from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in the current financial year, up from its existing Rs 140 crore of orders in FY24. The EPC company now targets to expand its base in Saudi Arabia with major orders flowing from Aramco.

“Right now, we are empanelled in all the sectors with Aramco, including refining, petrochemicals, offshore, etc. We’ll see how we work around with them,” Shukla said.

When asked about the company’s recent memorandum of understanding (MoU) with energy giant bp, Shukla said that the primary motive of the agreement is to collaborate across the hydrocarbon chain including refining, offshore, liquefied natural gas, ports etc across the world. 

The company also aims to expand its renewable energy base with plans to acquire assets in order to achieve its net zero targets.