Vikas Lifecare, IGL to set up Integrated Smart Meter Manufacturing Plant

Vikas Lifecare has announced that its subsidiary Genesis Gas Solutions has entered into a joint venture with Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) to set up India’s first Integrated Smart Meter Manufacturing Plant with a capital expenditure of Rs 1100 million.

As per the MoU, IGL and Genesis will establish India's first Integrated State-of-the-Art Smart Meter Manufacturing Plant to manufacture Diaphragm Gas Meters equipped with IoT technologies like LoRa, LoRaWAN, Bluetooth, NFC, NB-IoT etc. 

These meters will provide solutions to manage consumers’ energy demand and metering with utmost accuracy and on real time basis, the company said in an exchange filing.

The proposed joint venture will also develop necessary software, interface with in-built smart analytics, dashboards and predictive maintenance protocols, systems as these are becoming a necessity for running any gas distribution business in an efficient manner. 

Notably, the Gas Metering Solutions market is presently dominated by offshore suppliers. Vikas Garg, chairman of Vikas Group, said that the joint venture will be a game changer and will revolutionize the Smart Metering technology in India and will be a step forward towards AtmaNirbahar Bharat.

"The joint venture between IGL and Genesis has been announced is being announced following the spirit of government's Make in India - Make for World initiative, shall be instrumental in paradigm shift in favour of domestic players," he said.

Pawan Kumar, director (commercial), IGL, said that the company is taking a major step towards diversification into allied manufacturing business in line with mission and vision for green, clean and sustainable growth. 

"This JV will help in import substitution and will give impetus to make in India initiative in Amrit Kaal (Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav),” he said.

Initially, the Smart Meter Manufacturing Plant will have the capacity to manufacture 1 million meters annually and is planned to be operational by April 2024.