GMR Energy Ltd, the subsidiary of Bangalore-based infrastructure major, GMR Infrastructure Ltd, has finalised a Rs 400crore investment plan to relocate and restart its barge-mounted naphtha fired power project from Mangalore on the west coast to Kakinada on the east coast in Andhra Pradesh. The new plant, which will use natural gas as basic fuel, will be operationalised by March 2010.
GMR, which set up India’s first barge-mounted naphta-fired 220-Mw barge-mounted power project at Mangalore in Karnataka in 2001, had decided to relocate the plant after its power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Karnataka government ended in June 2008. The company wants to make use of the enormous quantity of gas available from the Krishna-Godavari basin to run its plant. Raaj Kumar, chief executive officer, GMR Energy, said, “There is plenty of gas available and we have been allocated gas from Reliance’s KG Basin for our requirement. We will require one million cubic metre gas per day to run the plant.”
The company is operating the plant at Mangalore on a merchant basis and supplying power to the state grid at Rs 5.50 per unit. The barge will be sailed off to Kakinada through the sea route in February 2010 and within one month start generating power, he told Business Standard.