Reliance Infrastructure Ltd said its profit for the second quarter rose six per cent to Rs 307 crore on the back of strong performance in the engineering and procurement segment, even as the sales volumes of electrical energy fell 17.84 per cent year on year.

Total operating income for the second quarter of financial year 2009-10 fell seven per cent to Rs 2,649.56 crore. At the end of July-September quarter the company had an order book position of Rs 19,620 crore and is working on six power projects and one road project.

The EPC revenue for the period rose 113 per cent to Rs 928 crore, while operating profit from the division grew 160 per cent to Rs 91 crore for the September 2009 quarter.

The company has over Rs 8,000 crore of cash and cash equivalent and has a gross total debt of Rs 4,314 crore, a statement said. Reliance Infrastructure’s aggregate sales of electrical energy rose 9 per cent of Rs 2,623 million units during the quarter. However, the revenues from the sales declined by around 18 per cent to Rs 1,644 crore.

During the period the company also purchased around 1,402 million units or 5 per cent more electricity from third parties. The cost of energy during the period under review fell 19 per cent to Rs 881 crore, as per unit cost declined to Rs 6.3 as against Rs 8.3 per unit in the previous period.

Reliance Infrastructure also increased its customer base in the Mumbai supply area to 27.23 lakh. But the distribution of electrical energy in the area fell around four per cent to 1,671 million units in the quarter ending September 2009.