The Hindu Business Line : Power Ministry to invite bids for setting up 4 mega projects

THE Union Power Ministry, though an empowered group, is planning to invite bids to set up four mega power projects in the country. Expressions of interest will be invited from potential bidders in the next four months.

Each project will have a capacity of 5,000 megawatts (MW) and entail an investment of Rs 20,000 crore. The projects can be scaled up to 8,000-10,000 MW.

The projects would be pithead-based or located along the coastline, said Mr R. V. Shahi, Power Secretary, Government of India, while speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of the Power India 2005 conference here on Wednesday.

"Through these projects, we are attempting to move to competition-based power tariff from the present performance-based power tariff," Mr Shahi said.

The Power Finance Corporation of India would undertake the initial work to get the projects off the ground. Thereafter, the private developers would be asked to move in and take over the projects, he added.

The Power Ministry is already working with the Coal Ministry for fuel linkages for these projects.

It also plans to join hands with various State Governments to set up smaller 1,000-MW power projects in the northern, southern, and western regions.

Mr Shahi said the sector would achieve about 87 per cent of the target requirements of the 10th Plan (2002-07) with a 37,000-MW production.

This is in contrast to less than 50 per cent of the target requirements achieved during 8th and 9th Plan periods.

The shortfall in target would be achieved by increasing capacity as also by tapping under-utilised and unutilised capacities of captive plants. Mr Shahi said 50 per cent of the targeted 60,000 MW during the 11th Plan period would be coal-based; 30 per cent hydel; 10 per cent gas-based and five per cent each would be from nuclear and non-conventional sources.

The input from coal-based power could be marginally lowered if the country gets gas at predictable prices, he said.

"If the country could have seven per cent growth in power generation in the next five years, then we could have eight to nine per cent economic growth," Mr Shahi said.

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