November 21, 2008

NHPC to become 10,000 MW plus in 5 years

PTI reported that National Hydroelectric Power Corporation will double the power generation to become a 10,000 MW plus corporation by 2011-12 envisaging an investment of INR 28,000 crore.

Mr SK Garg CMD of NHPC said that "We currently have a capacity of 4,700 MW with work on 13 projects going on in full swing. We shall be commissioning all the projects without time and cost overruns. This is all being done with internal accruals, debt funding and public offering in the near future."

Elaborating on the plans, Mr Garg said that government support was discontinued since 2007 and all projects ongoing and in the future would be funded largely from the internal accruals and debt financing.

On the status of India's largest hydel power project of 2,000 MW in Arunachal Pradesh, he said that work on dam's construction will start by December 2008, while power house work was already on. He added that "As committed, we shall commission this project in 2011-12, while rest of the 12 projects in next 3 years."

Asked details of INR 28,000 crore investment, Mr Garg said that about INR 4,800 crore would come from internal accruals and it has already signed an agreement with Power Finance Corporation for INR 3,000 crore in addition to INR 1,000 crore to be signed soon. Besides, NHPC has two lines of credit from Life Insurance Corporation for INR 9,000 crore.

On the public offering, he said that "We are waiting for appointment of independent directors and as soon as this is done we shall hit the market in no time as all preparations have been done."