Sutluj Jal Vidyut mulls IPO

May raise Rs 500 cr for pipeline projects

The Sutluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited, which successfully commissioned its first 1,500 mw (mega watt) Nathpa Jhakri project last month in Himachal Pradesh, is mulling an IPO to partly meet future capital requirements.

Though nothing has been finalised yet, the public sector corporation may initially consider raising about Rs 500 crore for its pipeline projects, according to its chairman and managing director Y N Apparao.

The corporation has seven projects on hand aggregating over 2,500 mw in capacity which will be executed over the next four to five years at an average cost of Rs 5 crore per mw. Of the five projects identified in Himachal Pradesh the corporation has already commenced investigation works for the 439 mw Raipur hydro-electric project.

Addressing a media conference here today, Apparao, said that the Sutluj Jal Nigam is expected to record a net profit of Rs 500 crore in the first year of operation itself. According to him, the annual turnover of the corporation is expected to touch Rs 1,600 crore.

The first 250 mw unit of Nathpa Jhakri project was commissioned last September and all the six units have been brought into commercial operation by May 2004.

He said that the corporation would raise the money for its future projects mostly through internal resources as the corporation is financially sound.

"We may come out with an IPO for about Rs 500 crore. But nothing has been finalised on that front. The government has to give us the go-ahead for an IPO," he said.

The Nathpa Jhakri project, which is a joint venture between the Himachal Pradesh government and the Government of India, is expected to generate about 7,000 million units of power annually.

Priced at Rs 2.18 paise per unit at present, the power tariff of the peaking power generated by the project would be around Rs 2.40 paise per unit, Rao said.

Of the total power generated, 12 per cent is being supplied free of cost to the home state. Again in the remaining 88 per cent generation, 25 per cent is being supplied to Himachal Pradesh and the rest is allocated to six other northern states.

Rated as the largest under ground hydel power project in the world the Nathpa Jhakri power project has cost close to Rs 8,600 crore.