NTPC, SWR enter pact for doubling Hotgi-Kudgi section

State-owned NTPC has entered a pact with South Western Railways (SWR) for doubling a section of the latter under customer funding concession.
"NTPC has agreed to finance the cost of construction of the rail system under the customer funding model of Ministry of Railways Policy of participative model for rail connectivity," the PSU said in a statement.
NTPC has deposited Rs 946 crore with SWR towards the cost of doubling of railway section between Hotgi-Kudgi(134 km), the statement said.
The section consists of 10 block stations, eight major bridges and two important bridges on river Don and river Bheema.
The work has already been started by SWR and the project is targeted for completion by March, 2020.

The Augmented Rail Infrastructure apart from catering to the coal transportation requirements of 4,000 MW power project of NTPC is also expected to give big fillip to the economic activities of Northern Karnataka, the statement said.

The agreement was signed by A S Rao, CTPM (Chief Traffic Planning Manager) on behalf of SWR and by Harbans Singh, Group General Manager on behalf of NTPC-Kudgi.
(REOPENS DCM 51)
The company said in a statement that it has incurred a capex (capital expenditure) of Rs 17,520.68 crore in nine months of 2016-17 (April-December) as against Rs 16,156.50 crore a year ago.
The capex by other group companies has been Rs 3,588.14 crore. Thus, the total group capex for the nine month period of this fiscal is Rs 21,108.82 crore.

The growth in (power) generation of over 9 month period for NTPC (without solar in April-December) is 4 per cent and the same commensurates with growth in capacity (without solar) of 4 per cent.
In comparison, the country wide growth in generation of 5 per cent trails behind growth in power generation capacity of 7 per cent (both without solar).
For the nine-month period of 2016-17, NTPC Ltd generated 186.548 billion units against 179.643 billion units generated in the corresponding period of the previous year.
NTPC's thermal stations clocked plant load factor of 77.72 per cent for the nine months of 2016-17 as against National PLF of 59.64 per cent. NTPC stations registered differential PLF spread of 18 per cent over the national average.

Talking about spurt in mining activities, it said mining commenced at Pakri-Barwadih which is expected to produce 1.5 lakh tonnes coal by March 2017.
The company's board has accorded approval for appointment of MDO (Mine Development cum Operator) for Dulanga coal mine.
The company has embarked on inorganic growth with acquisition of Chhabra Thermal Power Plant. Stage 1 (4x250 MW) will be acquired by March 2017. Stage II (2x660 MW) will be acquired subsequently.
It said that its first wind power project - Rojmal Wind Energy Project (50 MW) is being set up in Gujarat at an appraised estimated cost of Rs 323.35 crore.

It said that the company issued its first Euro denominated bond worth Euro 500 million on January 25, 2017.
The 10-year bond has been issued at a coupon of 2.75 per cent. This is the first ever 10 year Euro denominated bond issuance by an Asian utility and are listed at Frankfurt and Singapore stock exchanges.
During April-December of 2016-17, it has issued bonds aggregating to Rs 8,865 crore at very competitive rates in the domestic markets. Bond Series 66 of Rs 3925 crore is the highest single issuance with a fixed coupon of 7.37 per cent for 15 year tenor, it added.