Andhra ultra mega project: ADB may lend Rs 2,000 cr

With this, the company is expected to achieve financial closure shortly, say sources, adding that it is also talking to a few financial institutions for debt. The project may cost over Rs 18,000 crore, of which about 80 per cent will be debt.

Reliance Power is in discussions with Manila-based ADB and a project appraisal team will come to India within two weeks for the final round of discussions there, say sources.

The coal-fired Krishnapatnam project is the third of the nine UMPPs planned by the central government to bridge the 20,000-Mw power deficit in the country. The shortage is expected to shoot up 15-20 per cent every year.

Reliance Infrastructure, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the project, is in talks with leading global power equipment manufacturers for sourcing boilers, turbines and generators for the project.

In April this year, the ADB had extended $450-million loan to Coastal Gujarat Power (CGPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Power Company, for executing the UMPP at Mundra in western Gujarat. Mundra is the first of the three awarded projects. The ADB had also approved a $79.3-million loan to the Tatas for setting up wind energy projects in Maharashtra last year.

According to the power purchase agreement, Coastal Andhra Power (CAPL), a subsidiary of Reliance Power, is committed to commission the first unit by September 2013. Company sources said the project could be fast-tracked by at least a year. The government has allocated 70 per cent land for the project, which requires 2,600 acres.

The Krishnapatnam project is the third UMPP awarded so far after Mundra in Gujarat and Sasan in Madhya Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh will get about 1600 Mw from the project while Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra will get 800 Mw each.