Steamhouse India Wins ₹311 Crore EPC Contract at Una Pharma Park

Steamhouse India has secured a ₹311 crore engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mandate to build a 300 TPH steam and 30 MW co-generation plant at a government-backed pharmaceutical park in Una, Himachal Pradesh. It is the company’s first confirmed project outside its home base of Gujarat.

The contract was disclosed to Indian exchanges on 24 September 2026 as a “Type A” work order, meaning the value is firm and the work is executable rather than provisional. It carries a 25-year operations and maintenance obligation attached to the construction scope, converting what would ordinarily be a one-time build into a long-duration recurring revenue arrangement that runs deep into the next decade.

Here is what the award actually consists of, how the commercial structure works, and what it reveals about whether Steamhouse’s community boiler model is a repeatable platform or a one-off project win. The distinction matters for anyone weighing the company’s earnings trajectory against its ambitions.

What Steamhouse India has actually been awarded

The client is Himachal Pradesh Bulk Drug Park Infrastructure Ltd, and the headline number is ₹311 crore inclusive of goods and services tax (GST). But the rupee figure only captures the first layer of the award.

This is a single integrated commercial mandate with three distinct components. The EPC phase covers the construction of the plant itself: a 300 TPH steam generation facility, an associated steam distribution network serving the park, and an indicative 30 MW co-generation output. That build is projected to run for 24 months, subject to conditions.

The second layer is a 25-year operations and maintenance obligation that begins after commissioning. The third is a structured revenue-sharing arrangement layered on top of that O&M period. Treating these as separate line items misses the point: the value of the deal sits in how they combine.

The 24-month construction clock does not start on signing. It is governed by conditions precedent: execution of a definitive agreement, receipt of regulatory approvals, and site readiness among them.

The 25-year tail is the real story The revenue-sharing period is projected to run for 20 years, from April 2032 through March 2052.

Electricity output from the plant’s turbines falls under the state implementing agency’s remit: it is that body, rather than Steamhouse, that takes responsibility for purchasing the power and decides what happens to it thereafter, whether through onward distribution or sale.

Why the Una Bulk Drug Park model changes the commercial equation

Steamhouse is not building this plant for a single corporate customer. It is building it for a park-level entity created under India’s Bulk Drug Park scheme, and that changes the risk calculus considerably.

The scheme, administered by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, funds common infrastructure so that individual API manufacturers do not each have to build their own steam plants, effluent systems and shared utilities. Central financial assistance runs to ₹1,000 crore per park, or 70% of the common infrastructure project cost.

India’s petrochemical park development model follows a similar logic to the Bulk Drug Park scheme: centralised common infrastructure, government-anchored funding, and shared utility arrangements that reduce per-tenant capital expenditure and regulatory complexity.

For hilly and north-eastern states, including Himachal Pradesh, that grant ceiling rises to 90%. The overall scheme carries an outlay of ₹3,000 crore for FY 2020-21 to FY 2026-27.

The Bulk Drug Parks scheme guidelines, published by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, set the financial architecture underpinning Una’s infrastructure model, including the ₹3,000 crore total outlay and the elevated 90% grant ceiling that applies to hilly states such as Himachal Pradesh.

That 90% figure tells you something specific. The policy design heavily de-risks the infrastructure investment for whoever builds and operates the common facilities at Una, which is precisely why Steamhouse’s project can be funded by the park special purpose vehicle (SPV) rather than by the developer’s own balance sheet. The scheme itself is aimed at reducing India’s dependence on imported active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) by building integrated domestic manufacturing clusters.

For park tenants, a centralised co-generation facility carries three clear advantages:

• Lower capital expenditure, since manufacturers avoid building captive boilers and generators of their own
• Simpler regulatory compliance on emissions and safety, handled at the park level rather than plant by plant
• More predictable energy pricing across the cluster through shared load management

The upshot for investors is that the Una contract carries lower construction funding risk than a comparable private industrial project, because the revenue model is anchored to a government-backed SPV rather than a single company that could default or relocate.

Co-generation efficiency and what it means for park tenants

Co-generation produces electricity and usable steam from the same fuel input. That lifts overall energy efficiency to a typical range of 60-80%, against roughly 35-40% for a conventional power-only plant.

For API and bulk drug manufacturers that need both process steam and power, the efficiency gain is direct. There are no captive boilers or generators to maintain, and load can be managed across the whole park rather than plant by plant.

Because the state agency holds the electricity procurement and resale rights, the power revenue stream sits with the state rather than with Steamhouse. That keeps the company’s O&M economics focused on steam and operations, which is the part it actually controls.

The capacity platform this contract is building toward

The Una figure does not stand alone. It slots into a capacity build that is already underway across three components, and the combined total reads as arithmetic rather than aspiration.

Steamhouse currently runs approximately 345 TPH of operational steam generation and distribution. It has roughly 360 TPH more under construction. Add the 300 TPH at Una, and the combined potential platform on completion reaches approximately 1,005 TPH.

That 1,005 TPH is not a number lifted from a strategy deck. It is the sum of projects already at various stages of execution, which is the distinction to hold when judging whether the growth narrative has operational substance behind it.

Una is also the geographic inflection point. It is the company’s first confirmed project outside Gujarat, and it demonstrates that the community boiler model can be replicated under a government-sponsored park structure in a different state, under a different regulatory environment, and with a different type of anchor client.

The revenue trajectory gives the capacity story financial context.

Revenue growth backing the expansion Steamhouse reported revenue from operations of ₹4,915.11 million in FY 2025-26, up from ₹3,951.06 million in FY 2024-25. Diluted earnings per share rose to ₹1.71 from ₹1.38 over the same period.

Credit agency ICRA published a rating rationale on 27 June 2026 that acknowledged the company’s growing operations in industrial steam and related utilities. For investors tracking India’s pharma infrastructure buildout, the combination of capacity and revenue growth is what puts the Una win in context: either a standalone event, or part of a compounding position in a structurally expanding segment. The company has also flagged biomass and other waste-derived fuels as optionality at Una, though that remains subject to technical feasibility and regulatory approval.

How the revenue structure converts this contract into long-term income

Calling this contract an annuity is easy. Understanding why it earns that description takes a walk through the mechanics.

The commercial framework has three layers. First, Steamhouse is reimbursed for actual operating costs plus a permissible markup. Second, there is recovery of any operating expenditure gap funding, the OGF or OGE recoupment. Third, a revenue-sharing arrangement is tied to a standardised internal rate of return for the pharmaceutical and API sector, as sanctioned by the relevant competent authority.

The sequence unfolds in three phases:

1. EPC construction phase, running 24 months subject to conditions
2. An initial subsidised operational period after commissioning
3. The revenue-sharing period, running from April 2032 through March 2052

That April 2032 start date matters. There is a defined gap between commissioning and the point at which full revenue-sharing activates, which is the sequence anyone modelling when the annuity component actually begins contributing to earnings needs to build in.

The construction risk profile is unusually light. Because the project cost is funded by the park SPV, Steamhouse’s working-capital exposure during the build is limited, in line with its asset-light approach.

None of that makes the income guaranteed. The 25-year horizon carries identifiable exposure points:

Industrial energy supply agreements that run beyond a decade consistently attract close scrutiny on counterparty creditworthiness, occupancy assumptions, and technology obsolescence risk, all three of which are live exposure points in the Una O&M mandate.

• Counterparty risk on the park SPV and the health of the tenant mix over decades
• Performance and technology risk across a quarter-century, as fuel prices, environmental norms and process technologies shift
• Complexity in administering the cost-recovery and sharing formulas, which can create contractual friction
• Occupancy-dependent utilisation risk, since co-generation economics depend on sustained park occupancy and tenant production levels

Read the O&M mandate not as a locked-in cheque, then, but as a structured framework with defined protections on one side and a genuine set of long-tenor exposures on the other. Both sides are material to any assessment of Steamhouse’s earnings quality.

What this contract signals about where Steamhouse is headed

The Una win answers one question and raises another. It confirms that the community boiler model travels: from Gujarat’s private industrial clusters to a government-sponsored pharma park in a hilly state, with a different regulatory setting and a state-backed SPV as anchor client.

India’s industrial energy infrastructure expansion is increasingly structured around cluster-level utility hubs rather than per-facility captive generation, a shift driven by policy incentives, environmental compliance pressures, and the capital efficiency gains visible in schemes like the Bulk Drug Park programme.

Chairman and Managing Director Vishal S. Budhia has framed the contract as strategically significant for the company’s expansion. The harder question is how far the template repeats.

Replication depends on specific conditions being met:

• A dense tenant base with consistent steam and power demand
• State agencies or park SPVs willing to anchor long-term utility concessions and support cost recovery plus reasonable returns
• Fuel-supply and environmental risks that stay manageable within the chosen technology and fuel mix

The nuance to hold is that the structural conditions at Una are specific. Government sponsorship, a 90% hilly-state grant ceiling, and a pharmaceutical cluster combine in a way that winning here does not automatically reproduce elsewhere. For investors, the signal to watch is whether Steamhouse converts the Una template into additional park mandates over the coming cycles.

The open variables that will define the outcome

Several variables still sit unresolved. The 24-month EPC clock only starts once the definitive agreement is executed, regulatory approvals land, and the site is ready.

Beyond construction, the long-term O&M economics depend on how park occupancy at Una actually develops, since utilisation drives the co-generation returns. The biomass fuel option remains a pending decision point rather than a confirmed element of the project.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with financial professionals before making investment decisions.

Past performance does not guarantee future results. Financial projections are subject to market conditions and various risk factors, and forward-looking statements about the revenue-sharing period and capacity platform are speculative and subject to change based on market developments and company performance.