The Essar group has entered into a strategic alliance with China Metallurgical Constructions Corporation for undertaking projects in the iron and steel industry. It has also tied-up with China 18 Bureau for construction of roads and expressways.

While the initial set up would be in the form of a strategic alliance only, these tie-ups would ultimately be incorporated into joint ventures, a senior Essar group executive said.

"The idea is to bring home their (the Chinese firms') efficiency and technology, besides the inflow of funds," group sources said.

"The partnerships with the foreign majors would also provide the requisite strength to bid for mega projects," the sources added.

The joint ventures would be formed with Essar Constructions and would bid for large construction projects in the country, including the Golden Quadrilateral and other projects initiated by governmental agencies.

Essar Constructions was formed due to the financial structures required in the infrastructure sector to undertake core sector projects either on an engineering procurement and construction or on a build own transfer basis.

The company has taken over the base of construction equipment and skilled workforce of Essar Projects which was formed in 1990 to execute various onshore and offshore projects and sub-sea pipelines.

Essar Projects was the turnkey contractor for most of the groups infrastructure projects which would now be operated under the Essar Constructions umbrella.

Essar Constructions currently has an order book position of around Rs 1000 crore (Rs 10 billion) and has already executed projects worth Rs 14,000.

The company is currently executing a project for 200 kilometers of the Golden Quadrilateral National Highway.

The company also has underway a Rs 500-crore bulk water pipeline project covering 761 km in Gujarat.