On a standalone basis, net profit grew 58.57 per cent to Rs 659.37 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, against Rs 415.82 crore a year ago.

The rise in profit is a reflection of the 'exceptional gains' of Rs 418.34 crore the company made from selling 5.31 crore equity shares of Reliance Power (RPower), its Chief Executive Lalit Jalan said here.

Following this, RInfra's interest in RPower has come down to 36.52 per cent from 38.41 per cent earlier, he said.

Shares of RInfra closed 2 per cent down at Rs 528.20 on the BSE, whose index Sensex closed flat today.

Total consolidated operating income stood at Rs 5,296 crore against Rs 6,160 crore a year ago, while on a standalone basis, revenue stood at Rs 3,455.21 crore in Q3 against Rs 4,507.24 in the corresponding quarter last year.

"Our infrastructure business is a growth business. Most of our projects are coming on stream and the effect of this is reflected on our balance-sheet and profit and loss account. The revenues for the quarter grew nearly 80 per cent y-o-y and we will see this trend continuing even in the next 6-7 quarters," Jalan said.

In its infrastructure portfolio, RInfra is developing 11 road projects of which eight are operational and generating revenues. Another two will get operational in the current quarter.

He said the Delhi Airport Metro line, part of Rinfra's business, has resumed operations after being shut for nearly six months, while the Mumbai Metro project is likely to get operational in the middle of FY14.

However, RInfra's EPC business, which contributes a large part of the company's revenues, witnessed a decline to Rs 1,840.28 crore in Q3 from Rs 2,939.88 crore a year ago.

However, Jalan played down the drop, saying "last year was a stupendous year of growth for our EPC business. We used to be operating typically in the Rs 3,000 crore bracket annual turnover in EPC."

"In FY12 we witnessed a 300 per cent increase in revenue. To sustain that number and grow at similar rate is not possible given the current scenario. So, we will close the year at Rs 7,000 crore, which will be lower compared to last year but at CAGR level it will be good," he said.

The company is expecting orders from RPower for its projects, including the Sasan power plant expansion (Madhya Pradesh), Tilaiya UMPP (Jharkhand), Tato hydel project (Arunachal Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Chitrangi (Madhya Pradesh).

"We are expecting to bag these projects sooner or later. Besides, we are also looking at some EPC road or metro projects," Jalan said.

The EPC order book stood at Rs 12,145 crore at the end of the reporting quarter.

On the status of the second 32-km second Metro line in Mumbai connecting Charkop on the west with Mankhurd on the eastern fringe via Bandra, he said, "we can start construction anytime. But there is still no clarity on depot land and certain other issues. So we are going to wait and watch."

During the quarter under review, the company entered into a strategic long-term partnership with the Wanda Group of China for real estate development in Hyderabad.

Stocks More on Reliance Infrastructure