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New Delhi, July 17 Essar Group has sought the permission of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to invest Rs 500 crore in its telecom infrastructure business Essar Telecom Tower Infrastructure.

The infrastructure business is being made a wholly subsidiary of Mauritius-based Essar Communications Holdings Ltd, which also holds 22 per cent stake in the cellular services venture Vodafone Essar.

Currently, ECHL holds only 49 per cent stake in the infrastructure business and the approvals have being sought to increase the stake to 100 per cent by infusing fresh funds.

Essar is planning to roll out 18,000 towers by 2010. It is also on the prowl to acquire smaller infrastructure firms.

Telecom tower business is emerging as a major growth area for most telecom company. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices have all hived off their telecom infrastructure into a separate company in bid to unlock the value. The operators are looking to bring in a strategic investor into the infrastructure company.

This has also resulted in the emergence of standalone firms such as GTL Infrastructure and Quippo, which focus entirely in rolling out cellular towers.

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