| The loan is backed by a government of India guarantee, the World Bank said in an e-mailed news release today. The World Bank has made three direct loans to Power Grid since 1993, it said. |
| India seeks to add 60,000 km of transmission network by 2012 to carry 60 per cent of the power generated, the World Bank said. |
| The expansion, coupled with construction of power plants, will help Prime Minister Manmohan Singh increase the share of manufacturing in India's gross domestic product. |
| "The sector's financial performance is improving and more and more villages are being electrified,'' Isabel Guerrero, World Bank country director for India, said in the release. |
| "This project, by strengthening transmission networks within and between regions, will enable more power to reach the people across the country.'' |
| State-run PowerGrid, based in Gurgaon near New Delhi, is spending Rs 55,000 crore ($14 billion) on the project, while private companies are investing Rs 20,000 crore. |
| The country's peak power deficit was 9 per cent in the 10 months ended January 31, according to the Central Electricity Authority, as demand exceeded supply. |
| As a result, 60 per cent of Indian companies and a large percentage of homes rely on captive or back-up generation, the World Bank said. |
| The prime minister had in May 2005 unveiled a four-year Bharat Nirman, or Build India project, that has accelerated the construction of roads connecting villages and provided telephone connections and electricity to increase the pace of growth in the rural economy. |
| At the end of December 2007, 487,351 villages, or 82.1 per cent of the total, had power, the Central Electricity Authority said on its Web site. |
| PowerGrid shares gained marginally on Wednesday, to close 0.60 higher at Rs 93.25 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The stock has declined 33 per cent since the start of the year, as compared with a fall of 25 per cent in the benchmark Sensitive Index. |
Top Section
Explore Business Standard