McNamara Construction, the building firm headed by Bernard McNamara, has signed a memorandum of understanding to construct a €1.7 billion power plant in southern India.
It may also enter into a contract to build an offshore port that will handle coal to fire the power station, at an expected cost of €128 million.
The port, which is expected to handle between 20 and 40 million tonnes of coal a year, will have an elevated conveyor system to serve coal directly to the power plant.
The memorandum of understanding, signed this week between McNamara Construction and the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board, signifies what could be the biggest deal by an Irish company in India to date. McNamara Construction, which is one of the State's largest builders, expects the Indian project to be completed within three years if it proceeds with it.
Construction is planned in the Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu, an area that was hit by the devastating tsunami of 2004. The 2,000 megawatt power plant is being seen by the regional government as instrumental in enabling it to revitalise the local economy.
More than 7,000 people - 2,000 directly and 5,000 indirectly - are expected to be employed during the construction phase.
The construction of a new port will also provide a major boost to existing and new industries coming to the region, according to local press reports.
McNamara Construction declined to comment on the agreement, which was announced by the Tamil Nadu government yesterday.
Sources familiar with the situation pointed out that memorandums of understanding quite often do not lead to firm deals in India.
Mr McNamara has amassed a significant fortune from property construction and investment. Earlier this year he acquired a stake in the Conrad Hotel in Dublin, which added to a string of similar holdings in high-profile operations such as the Shelbourne Hotel.
He is also a co-owner of Superquinn and is one of the biggest shareholders in the consortium that last year acquired the defunct Irish Glass bottle manufacturing site in Ringsend, Dublin 4, for €412 million.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)