IECC board gets taken over again

Hyderabad: Hyderabad-based IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company (IECC) — a group firm of debt-ridden IL&FS Group — on Friday earned quite an unenvious distinction of being under government-appointed board twice in a decade. IECC was known as Maytas Infrastructure Ltd in its earlier avatar.

The board of Maytas Infra was superseded by the Company Law Board - an earlier version of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) — in March 2009 after its promoter B. Ramalinga Raju’s involvement in the Satyam Computers scam affected the functioning of the infra company. Maytas Infra was one of top infrastructure companies of the day and had got the contract for building the Hyderabad Metro — India’s first Metro project on PPP basis.

Maytas Infra was run by government appointed board for six months. In August 2009, the government-appointed board allowed IL&FS — one of the major shareholders and lenders of the company — to take control of the infra firm. It was renamed IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company Limited.

About six months short of a decade, IECC — previously Maytas Infra — finds history repeating with its current promoter being taken over by the government appointed board of directors.

However, IECC has no role to play in the travails of its current promoters this time around.