State-owned NHPC today posted around 47% jump in net profit to Rs 791.05 crore for the April-June quarter and said it plans to set two hydro projects of total 400 MW capacity in Uttarakhand.
The company had reported a net profit of Rs 537.42 crore during the same period last fiscal.
However, the company maintained that it could have registered more profit if the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission had approved hike in tariff due to imposition of water cess, amounting to Rs 200 crore, by the Jammu & Kashmir government.
"We are hopeful of setting up two projects with an aggregate capacity of 400 MW in Uttarakhand and are yet to sign a preliminary agreement with the state government," NHPC Chairman and Managing Director ABL Srivastava said.
Sales turnover grew by 40% to Rs 1,431.41 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 1,019.71 cr in the year-ago period.
NHPC, which generates 5,295 MW power, plans to raise the capacity to over 6,000 MW by the end of this fiscal. "We will add 723 MW by the end of this fiscal," Srivastava said.
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NHPC, which has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 29,000 crore for the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2012-17), aims to hire over 300 people by the end of this fiscal.
"We would recruit over 300 people this year, for which the exercise has already started," Srivastava added.
NHPC has also signed a preliminary agreement with Russia's largest power generating company JSC RusHydro for cooperation in the field of hydropower development, renewable energy sources and other areas of power generation.
On the company's thermal power generation foray, he said that NHPC is yet to make any breakthrough.
"As of now, there is no breakthrough on the thermal front, we cannot proceed further unless we have the coal linkage in place for which we have asked the Power Ministry and they in turn have approached the Coal Ministry," he added.
NHPC has set up a joint venture company - NHDC-- with the Madhya Pradesh government to set up two thermal power projects with an aggregate capacity of 1,320 MW in the state.