NTPC earmarks 1.5 lakh cr investment for power projects

Country's largest power producer NTPC has earmarked a whopping Rs 1,50,000 crore investment for sourcing equipment for its power projects in the next fiscal, the deliveries of which will be made over five years.

"We will place orders for equipment next (financial) year...Deliveries would be for five years," CMD NTPC Arup Roy Choudhary told reporters on the sidelines of SCOPE event.

"It (the order) is valued at about Rs 1,50,000 crore," Choudhary said adding these equipment are for the 75,000 MW capacity that NTPC plans to add by 2017.

The public sector company also hopes to see global companies bidding in this tender.

"We are encouraging foreign manufacturers to participate in our projects," he added.

NTPC which plans to add over 4,000 MW capacity during the current fiscal recently tied up with a Japan-based Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ for a $300 million loan.

This is to part finance its capital expenditure plans on its ongoing and new projects.

Meanwhile, Bharat-Forge Alstom joint venture emerged as the lowest bidder for supplying turbine-generator sets to NTPC for its future projects.

The tender for sourcing boilers for the same plants is yet to open next month.

When asked about the funding of the tender, Choudhary said, "We are a cash rich company, it (funding) is not a problem for us."
    
"These equipment deliveries are spread over a period of time," he said.
   
On being asked whether the company would choose follow-on public offer route to fund its expansion plans, he said, "That is government's decision...As far as capital is concerned it is not a problem."