The Larsen & Toubro Ltd (ECC division) consortium with Italy''s Paul Wurth has been awarded a Rs1,205-crore turnkey construction contract for Bhushan Steel''s 2.5 million TPA blast furnace at its Meramandali plant in Orissa. L&T says engineering majors Siemens VAI were among the rival bidders for the contract.

L&T''s share in this project is pegged at Rs760.5 crore from this order, scheduled for completion in April 2010.

Paul Wurth''s scope covers basic engineering, supply of proprietary and special equipment and technical supervisory services while L&T''s scope covers detail engineering, supply of indigenous mechanical, electrical and instrumentation works including complete site services involving civil structural and erection works.

The project is the consortium''s third successive order for the construction of large capacity blast furnaces in the last two years, which is presently executing the 2.5 million TPA (MTPA) blast furnace on turnkey basis for Tata Steel at Jamshedpur, currently nearing completion.

Recently, the consortium bagged another order from Tata Steel for the 3.2 MTPA blast furnace at its Kalinganagar Project. In addition, it also commenced work on the 2.5 MTPA blast furnace for the public sector Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, Vishakapatnam.