By Noor Mohd, IANS
New Delhi : State-owned power utility NTPC Ltd is planning a major investment by bidding for seven thermal power projects with a total capacity of over 10,000 MW, entailing equity investment of Rs.16-18 billion ($400-450 million) for each project, said a top company official.
These coal-based power plants, requiring a total investment of Rs.400 billion ($10 billion), will be built in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The respective state governments will float special purpose vehicles (SPV) for the projects, in which selected developers will have to invest between Rs.16-18 billion. The remaining amount will be raised through loans.
Since the company’s board of directors is not authorised to approve investments above Rs.10 billion in a SPV, it has approached the power ministry for an exemption so that it could bid for these projects, the official told IANS.
“We would request for a waiver of the ceiling of Rs.10 billion for equity investment by NTPC to establish joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries in India or abroad for bidding called by the state distribution licensees without any ceiling on the implementation of projects, which are won through the competitive bidding process,” NTPC has said in a recent letter to the power ministry.
The projects NTPC wants to bid for include Shahpura (1,500 MW) in Madhya Pradesh, Bara (1,980 MW) and Karchana (1,320 MW) in Uttar Pradesh, Bhadravati (1,320 MW) in Maharashtra and Chamalpura, Ghataprabha and Jeawargi (each 1,320 MW) in Karnataka.
“NTPC’s equity investment required in each of the cases is more than the existing authority available to ‘Navratna’ companies at present,” NTPC said.
The company however pointed out that “to facilitate NTPC’s participation in the bidding for development of ultra mega power projects, we had earlier approached Ministry of Power for giving enhanced power and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had approved”.