Coastal Energen, which is putting up a thermal power project near Tuticorin, southern Tamil Nadu, has secured Rs 1,950-crore funding from a SBI-led consortium of banks, the Founder President and CEO, Ahmed Buhari, said today. The funding is a combination of working capital and term loans, he said.

This is good news for the state of Tamil Nadu because Coastal Energen will now be able to move faster towards the completion of its second of the two units of the thermal project. Both units are of 600 MW capacity each, and the first began generating electricity in December 2014.

The working capital part of the loan will make it easier for the company to operate the Unit-I, Buhari said. In the last four months, Coastal Energen had somehow been managing the show, but now the running of the plant will be smoother.

Coastal Energen’s Rs 7,600-crore coal-based power project is the only one that has come up in Tamil Nadu in over a decade. The company has won a mandate, through a bidding process, to sell power to the state’s electricity generation and distribution utility, TANGEDCO, for 15 years for a price of Rs 4.91 a kWhr.

Commenting on securing the funding, Buhari said it was a “big milestone” and that the company would now aim towards completing the Unit-II by the end of the year.

Coastal Energen has lands of over 1,080 acres at the site which can accommodate 5,000 MW of power projects. The company has previously said that it would expand capacity beyond 1,200 MW.

The company is part of the Coal and Oil group, primarily engaged in coal shipping logistics.

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