Gammon Infrastructure Projects, the infrastructure arm of Gammon India, is looking at raising Rs5 billion (US$83.5 million) via a qualified institutional placement (QIP) for completion of current projects and to retire part of its debt.

According to sources, Gammon Infrastructure Projects would retire Rs1 billion (US$16.7 million) of debt and use the balance funds to complete projects over the next 6- 9 months.

The current projects to be funded by the QIP are, among others, the Godavari Bridge project in Andhra Pradesh, the Pravara co-generation project in Maharashtra and the Patna Highway Project, a 63.17-km annual annuity road project of National Highways Authority of India, which is part of NH-77, the road connects Hajipur (Patna) to Muzaffarpur.

Gammon Infrastructure Projects had in September 2013 a total debt of about Rs37 billion (US$618 million).

Last week GMR Infrastructure raised Rs36 billion (US$601 million) via QIP. GMR raised US$250 million by selling shares to qualified institutional investors, and another US$100 million by issuing warrants to promoters.

GMR also planned to used the funds to repay debt. Bangalore based GMR's consolidated debt stood at Rs391 billion (US$6.53 billion) as on March end.

According to sources, during the last month Indian companies have raised over Rs150 billion (US$2.5 billion) through QIPs to tap on the renewed investors' interest in India after the change of government.