The Hindu Business Line : ‘Huge opportunities for investments in power sector’

Coimbatore, July 10 Global majors, corporates and financial institutions have an ‘India strategy’, according to Mr.Ahmed AR Buhari, Founder President and CEO, Coal and Oil Group of Companies.

The company is putting up a 1,200-MW thermal power plant near Thoothukudi.

The World Bank has projected that the Indian economy would grow at 8 per cent during 2010, making it the fastest growing economy in the world edging past even China, he added.

Speaking at a meeting jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Coimbatore Zone, and the Southern India Engineering Manufacturers’ Association (Siema) here, he said while India is set to grow very fast, it has a long way to go in terms of power capacity.

India’s per capita consumption of power was very low at about 600 KW compared to about 1800 KW in China, 8000 KW in the US and 10,000 KW in the UAE. The power sector is estimated to require an investment of about $ 600 billion (Rs 24 lakh crore), offering a massive investment opportunity .

He said with huge capacity addition to power generation in the South, which is located far away from domestic sources of coal, there would be substantial import of coal and his company was geared to meet the fuel and energy requirements of the region. It was working with Tata Power, TNEB, Morgan Stanley, SBI and other institutions towards that end.

Mr P.K. Sen, Board Member, Coastal Energen Pvt Ltd, said the financial closure for the Thoothukudi power project had been achieved and preliminary work had begun.

Mr K. Kasthurirangaian, Chairman, Indian Wind Power Association, said according to a CEA survey, Tamil Nadu was short of 1800 MW of power now which would grow to 2800 MW by 2013-14.