Neyveli plans to acquire power plants in India; coal blocks abroad

Company intends to invest Rs 65k crore during 13th Five Year Plan period

The state-run mining and power generation company, the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), has said it was planning to acquire power plants in India and coal blocks outside the country. During the 13th Five Year Plan (FYP) period, the company intends to add 11,206 megawatt (Mw) at an outlay of Rs 65,000 crore.

The development comes at a time when its projects are increasingly facing problems due to delay in various clearance and time-delay from Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), among other factors.

NLC Chairman and Managing Director B Surender Mohan said for a faster growth, the company was looking to acquire power plant assets in India.

"Eight offers have been shortlisted. These are under evaluation," said Mohan, while refusing to share any details about the eight proposals.

NLC need to pursue ways to expedite implementation of the new projects more efficiently, said Mohan.

"If we want to start a new plant, it will take around four-five years, so this (inorganic) way will be easy for us," said Mohan.

On the ongoing projects, he said the TPS-II expansion project at Tuticorin totaling 500 Mw capacity, in collaboration with BHEL, reached Unit-I on January 6, 2015.

"The commissioning has not yet taken place. We do hope the same will be completed at the earliest and the commissioning of Unit-I could be achieved by the month-end. Another 250 Mw will also be ready for commissioning before February 2015 as committed by BHEL," said Mohan.

He said the scheduled dates of commissioning NTPL's 2X500-Mw Thermal Power Project at Tuticorin have been postponed due to the delay in obtaining forest clearance. It is now expected by March 2015.

The 2X500-Mw Neyveli New Thermal Power Project is also being constructed as a replacement for the existing TPS-I. The contracts have been awarded for all the three major packages and activities have been commenced. Unit-I is expected to be commissioned by October 2017 and Unit-II by April 2018.

On the 3X660-Mw Gadhampur Thermal Power Project (GTPP) in Uttar Pradesh, Mohan said land had been taken into possession. However, the government sanction delayed due to environmental clearances, as it is linked with stage-I forest clearance of the linked Coal block at Jharkhand.

Mohan said exploratory drilling work at Jharkhand is affected due to law and order problem and stiff resistance from local villagers.

To address the coal requirement for the NTPL and other power projects, NLC is planning to acquire coal blocks. For this, offers from Australia, Mozambique and Indonesia are being evaluated

NLC is also formulating plans for the 2X500-Mw Thermal Power Station-II, second expansion linked with Mine III eight MTPA, the 15-Mw Neyveli Solar Power Expansion Project and the 10-Mw solar Power project at Barsingar, Rajasthan with future expansion of 30 Mw.