Coal blocks to power Andhra firms

The latest allotment of coal blocks by the coal ministry provides a further boost to Andhra companies, which have been eyeing a pan-India presence in the power sector.

Of the 31 companies that were issued letters of allotment, four are from the state "� GVK, GMR Energy, Lanco and Navabharat Power. Together, they gave proposed to develop a 3,540-Mw capacity based on the present allotment of coal, in the next 3-4 years.

GVK (Goindwal Sahib) Limited, which has been given the Seregarh coal block in Jharkhand on a shared basis along with Mittal Steel Limited, has proposed to set up a 540-Mw plant, while the other three have been allotted Rampia and Dipside of Rampia coal block in Orissa to set up a 1,000-Mw plant each. The investment by these companies is expected to be around Rs 4.5 crore per Mw.

It may be recalled that the three companies "� GMR Energy, Lanco and GVK "� are already operating gas-based power projects in Andhra and Karnataka whereas Lanco and GVK have diversified into hydroelectric power generation with several projects on hand in North India.

Besides, Lanco is currently developing a pit-head thermal power project, Lanco Amarkantak, in Chhattisgarh, while GMR had already been allotted a coal mine in Chhattisgarh for setting up close to 1,000 Mw project in that state. "We cannot say as to which of these two projects would be our first coal-based thermal plant," a GMR representative said in response to a question on which project goes onstream first.

Among the four companies, Malaxmi Private Limited, the holding company of Navabharat Power Private Limited, is currently focusing on coal-based projects.

While the Orissa projects of the three companies are involved with inter-state sale of power with 25 per cent generation proposed to be bought by the Orissa government, GVK has tied up with the Punjab government for the sale of entire power to the latter.

Isaac George, head of finance, GVK group, said they were awaiting the tariff approvals from the Punjab electricity regulator to begin work on financial closure for the project.

"We expect the financial closure to complete early next year. From then, it would take 36 months to complete the project," he told Business Standard. It would be the company's first coal-based plant, according to him

Meanwhile, the Green Infrastructure Private Limited, in which former power secretary RV Shahi recently joined, too is promoted by an Andhra entrepreneur, who is currently developing a couple of hydroelectric projects in Sikkim and other places.