Tata Power to commission 2 units of Mundra UMPP by Feb 2012

The country's largest private power producer Tata Power today said it would commission 1,600 MW capacity of its 4,000 MW Mundra project in Gujarat during the current XIth Five Year Plan (2007-12).     

The company would commission two 800 MW units of its Mundra ultra mega power project by February 2012.     

"There is over 30 per cent progress in the project and we would commission the first unit in September 2011 and subsequently other units will follow at an interval of five months each....The second unit would be commissioned by February 2012," Tata Power Executive Director S Ramakrishnan told reporters here.     

The 4,000 MW Mundra project would be fully commissioned by December 2013. "Mundra would be the first UMPP to go on stream," Ramakrishnan said.     

The power generated from the project would be evacuated by the central transmission utility PowerGrid to the beneficiary states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan.     

The company is importing 12 million tonnes of coal from the Indonesian coal blocks in which it has ownership to the tune of 30 per cent. Nearly, half of the dry fuel requirement of the project will be procured from these mines. Tata Power is also looking at procuring coal from other sources.

Tata Power bagged the Mundra project in 2007 through the international competitive bidding process.     

The project entails an investment of Rs 17,000 crore and is being funded through a debt and equity ratio of 75:25. "The entire equity is ours (Tata Power's) and the debt component comes from both foreign exchange loans and domestic loans," he added.     

Nearly, $1.8 billion (approx Rs 5,400 cr) foreign exchange loan is being provided by Korean Exim, Korean Insurance, Asian Development Bank etc. The domestic loan of $1.2 billion (approx Rs 5,100 cr) would be raised through a consortium of banks led by SBI.