EESL plans Rs 6,000 crore capex during 2017-18 fiscal

State-run Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) plans to invest Rs 6,000 crore as capital expenditure during the 2017-18 fiscal year.

EESL's Managing Director Saurabh Kumar told reporters here on Wednesday that they plan to fund this massive capex through Rs 1,200 crore equity and Rs 4,800 crore debt.

While the company has equity of Rs 485 crore, about Rs 520 crore would be pumped in by the promoters National Thermal Power Corpn, Power Finance Corpn, , Rural Electrificaion Corpn and PowerGrid. The rest (about Rs 200 crore) will be raised through an IPO proposed during the fourth quarter of the current financial year.

Kumar said the debt of Rs 4,800 crore would be raised through various methods, including domestic borrowings and $100 million (about Rs 650 crore) green/masala bonds from the UK market.

The company also has commitments of about $550 million from Asian Development Bank, German agency KFW and French lender AFD while negotiations are on with the World Bank for additional funding.

EESL closed 2016-17 with a turnover of Rs 1,227 crore, up 53 per cent over the previous financial year. It expects to double the turnover this year to go past the Rs 2,500-crore mark.

Kumar said they had tied up with Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to replace about 4.5 lakh street lamps with LED bulbs in six months.

"We will be spending about Rs 270 crore on the project. GHMC will not invest anything in the project. They will make the payment out of the power bills they save after using LED bulbs," he said.

A joint venture of NTPC Limited, Power Finance Corporation (PFC), Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and PowerGrid Energy Efficiency, EESL was set up under the Ministry of Power to facilitate implementation of energy efficiency projects.

EESL is a super energy service company that seeks to unlock energy efficiency market in India, estimated to be at $12 billion.

The central government launched UJALA scheme in 2015 with a target of replacing 77 crore inefficient bulbs with LED bulbs by March 2019.

So far, over 24 crore LED bulbs, over 24 lakh LED tube lights and over 8.5 lakh energy efficient fans have been distributed and 24 lakh LED street lights have been replaced in the country.

--IANS

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