The Hindu Business Line : PowerGrid to invest Rs 10,000 cr to wheel power from N-E

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Bangalore Jan. 22 The public sector Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) has initiated work for evacuating power from the North Eastern region.

Speaking to newspersons here, the PGCIL Chairman and Managing Director, Mr R.P. Singh said, "This will involve an investment of Rs 10,000 crore." The project involved setting up High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) stations for wheeling electricity from two hydro electric power stations - Subanshree (2,000 MW) and Kempa (600 MW) being implemented by National Hydro Power Corporation Ltd. The project would involve a cable network of over a distance of 3,000 km.

He said the first station, as part of this project, would be set up in Agra for meeting the requirements of the Western region. The second station would be for transmitting power to the Southern region, though the location was yet to be decided. Both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank had offered to meet the funding of project, he said.

At present, the inter-regional power transfer capacity is 11,500 MW after the commissioning of the Tala Transmission system. The commissioning of this project has allowed four regional grids - North, West, East and North Eastern grids to work as one synchronous unit. The combined transmission capacity in these four regions is 90,000 MW. Inter-regional power transmission grid capacities would be stepped up to 18,000 MW by end 2010 and stepped up to 39,000 MW by 2012.

Referring to evacuation of power from the two ultra mega power projects - Sassan (MP) and Mundra (Gujarat), Mr Singh said PGCIL had been asked to set up the transmission grid. The completion of the transmission project would coincide with both the projects becoming operational. These projects would cost about Rs 4,000 crore each, he added.

On PGCIL's telecom projects, Mr Singh said revenues this year were estimated at Rs 80 crore and was expected to break even by next year. He said the Spice Telecom, the mobile licensee for Karnataka and Punjab, had entered into an agreement for using the backbone between Bangalore and Chandigarh. The rentals for lease of the backbone would be on a revenue sharing basis. The revenue sharing would be on a 50:50 basis, he added.

Negotiations with MNC

In addition, the telecom division was also negotiating with an MNC for providing dedicated backbone facilities for its operations in the country. The lease revenues estimated from this agreement would be in excess of Rs 400 crore, he said. Though the telecom backbone infrastructure was a cash cow, Mr Singh said there was now proposal to hive into a separate subsidiary.

PGCIL's initial public offering was slated to hit the market by the end of this financial year or the beginning of the next financial year. The face value of the IPO, he said, would be Rs 425 crore. Pricing was yet to be decided on the issue, he added.