lain off 300 employees following its closure reportedly due to severe fund crunch earlier this year in February. Noting thatseveral projects allocated to the private sector are not making much progress, NHPC’s Director (Finance) ABL Srivastava said that the company is open to entering into partnerships with private players.“We haven’t received proposals from the promoters and the State Government over the project. We will definitely look into this case in case the State Government approaches us. The company will take business decisions on commercial basis and merits”, said Srivastava in the media interaction which was held at Siliguri on 30th September.

But, as of now, we have decided to take only Greenfield (new) projects and people have already shown interest”

Lanco had on February suspended construction work of the Rs.3283.08 crore project after its lenders held back loans of around 200 Crores making the company totally bankrupt. Since then, over 300 ousted workers have been petitioning the State Government to bail out the project and resume the construction work at the earliest. Asked about the possibility of partnering with private power developers, Srivistava said that the NHPC board recently approved a policy to enter into joint ventures with private players. “But, as of now, we have decided to take only Greenfield (new) projects and people have already shown interest”, he said adding that several IPPs are willing to enter into joint ventures in various projects across the country. It would be a ‘win-win’ situation for the company as well as the private sector if both join hands only when promoters of the private sector projects are willing to offer us the majority stake. The company however is hoping that it will soon get environmental clearance for its 520 MW Teesta IV project in North Sikkim. However, two such projects Teesta V (410 MW) and Rangit (60 MW) are under operation in Sikkim while TLDP III (132 MW) and TLDP IV (160 MW) are under construction in Bengal. The Indian Hydropower giant has recently made a foray into thermal power generation in the country also by signing the first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chhattisgarh Government. Going beyond its usual water world, the company is going to make this move through a 1320 MW super critical thermal power project in Surajpur district of Chhattisgarh. “We have signed a MoU with the Chhattisgarh State for the development of 2x660 MW super critical thermal power project. Though the MoU has been signed just recently, we had to wait till this moment before making this public for certain technical reasons,” NHPC Finance director ABL Srivastava said.

According to him, NHPC and Chattisgarh will have a holding ratio of 74:26 in the project of an estimated Rs.9000 crore. “All the project clearances have already been received. Now certain approvals from authorities like Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) are to be received. After all clearances, the project is targeted to get into turn key position by 44 months. After completion, the State will take its entire output,” Srivastava told EP.

“On one hand, the entry of new hydropower companies into the turf has caused NHPC to face competition even as, with successful development of every new major project, the remaining potential is shrinking. Naturally, we will have to remain prepared for the future to keep the huge organization like NHPC running,” he rounded off.

Anoop Rai