810MW capacity addition on the cards

West Bengal Power Development Corporation Ltd (WBPDCL) has firmed up plans of enhancing its thermal power generation capacity by another 810 MW at an investment of Rs 3,300 crore in the next couple of years.

Officials from the company said that the expansion would involve setting up a sixth generation unit at Bakreshwar which would generate additional 210 MW. Plans have also been finalised to set up two more units of 300 MW each at its Sagardighi plant.

The sixth unit at Bakreshwar would involve an investment of Rs 800 crore while WBPDCL will have to shell out another Rs 2,400 crore for the Sagardighi units.

Officials said the projects would be taken up once its ongoing projects at Bakreshwar and Sagardighi were over "" which were likely to be completed by end 2006.

At present, WBPDCL was setting up two 300 MW thermal power plants at Sagardighi which is being implemented by Chinese equipment manufacturer Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC). The contract has already been awarded to DEC and ground work for the projects are on.

The project cost for this project however is exceptionally low at Rs 2.7 crore per MW, while the loaded cost of the project stands at Rs 2,100 crore "" translating into a cost structure of Rs 3.6 crore per MW.

DEC had won the bid on the strength of its lower bid from majors like BHEL. The project is being part financed by Power Finance Corporation at an interest rate of three per cent per annum.

The company is also setting up two additional units at Bakreshwar at Rs 1,680 crore. This project with loan from Japanese Bank for International Corporation (JBIC) will be implemented by a consortium formed by Itochu and Bhel which emerged the sole bidder after Marubeni Corporation backed out from the race.

Letter of intent for the project has recently been handed over to the consortium and it is likely to commence the project in the next few weeks.

The total cost of new expansion firmed up by the company could be little less than with the trend for setting up a mega watt of thermal power plant declining with Chinese majors offering costs that were way beyond the average cost being offered by other companies.