NTPC raises FY10 capex to Rs 25K cr

NTPC Ltd, India’s biggest power producer, has earmarked Rs 24,525 crore towards capital expenditure during the current fiscal, about 62% more than what it spent in the last fiscal.

AK Singhal, director - finance, NTPC, said, “On a standalone basis, the company would invest Rs 17,700 crore while another Rs 6,825 crore would be put in through joint ventures.”

The state-owned firm spent over Rs 15,183 crore in the last fiscal ended March 2009, of which Rs 12,685 crore was invested by NTPC and Rs 2,496 crore by joint ventures and subsidiaries.

The company plans to add 3300 megawatts of power generation capacity during FY10. 

“This is the capacity to be commercialised and commissioned in the current financial year,” he said.

Substantial part of the capex will be invested in bringing its captive coal mine in Jharkhand onstream. “We plan to invest up to Rs 543 crore in developing our captive coal mine. It has already been approved by the company board,” Singhal said.

NTPC was awarded its first captive coal block in October 2004 at Pakri Barwadih block in Jharkhand. However, the company said, the block was mired in several administrative hurdles and production couldn’t be started.

Chandan Roy, director - operations, NTPC Ltd, said, “Pakri Barwadih has already achieved environmental clearance and land will be finally acquired by October-November this year.”

Roy said though the company is going strong on its captive blocks this year, it has not factored supply from the block for the year. The block has estimated reserves of 1.6 billion tonnes, out of which at least 700 million tonnes are mineable. At peak production, the block is expected to yield 15 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of coal.
Singhal said for the current year, the company has a total coal requirement of close to 150 mtpa out of which 138 mtpa will be sourced from Coal India Ltd and its subsidiaries. The remaining 12 mtpa will be imported.

NTPC said that out of its 13 subsidiaries, only one — the Ratnagiri Gas Power Private Ltd (RGPPL), the erstwhile Dabhol Power Plant — is a loss-making entity which it plans to turn around in the next two years, once the gas shortage eases.

The company is also planning to run its gas-based power plants at 85% fuel availability in the current year and is looking at various sources to secure gas supply.Meanwhile, R S Sharma, NTPC chairman, said in New Delhi that the company wanted to operate a 4,000-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Kazakhstan.

“We are trying to take up the renovation and maintenance of GRES-I, a power plant run by Kazakhmys Plc in Kazakhstan,” he said. NTPC plans to bid for coal blocks in Kazakhstan, where it sees “good potential,” Sharma said. To overcome obstacles to transporting coal from land-locked Kazakhstan, NTPC may enter into a swap arrangement, shipping coal from a third country closer to India, Sharma said.