NTPC upbeat on growth plans

State-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is making diversification plans, besides improving efficiency, to take advantage of the new opportunities in the power sector and also to effectively face the challenges emerging from the Electricity Act 2003.

Addressing a press meet here today, on the eve of the road show for its first ever IPO that opens from October 7, T Shankaralingam, director (projects) of NTPC, said that the measures in the pipeline include capacity addition to the pit-head stations, captive coal mining, acquiring a mix of hydel and gas-based power generation to the existing coal-based thermal stations and even foraying into distribution.

He said that combining the company's growth strategy with its inherent strengths, they would be in a position to take the future competition to their advantage.

"We are planning to double the installed capacity of NTPC from the existing 21,435 mw by 2012. The purpose of IPO is to partly finance this major expansion programme," he said.

The price band of the issue, which closes on October 14, 2004, is fixed at Rs 52 to Rs 62 for equity share with a face value of Rs 10. For 2003-04, NTPC posted a net profit of Rs 5,260 crore.For the first quarter this fiscal, it registered a net profit of Rs 1,054.10 crore.