The Madhya Pradesh government is mulling disinvestment in some of its companies, including Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corporation and State Mining Corporation, after giving consent to dilute its stake in Manganese Ore India. It might also consider disinvestment in State Forest Development Corporation in future but it would require, according to officials, Supreme Court’s permission.
“The state government is considering disinvestment of Mining Corporation and in Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corporation (NHDC) but it is too early to say anything. We may also go public for Mining Corporation,” a government source told Business Standard.
Other corporations like Forest Development Corporation also figured in the discussion but it would require the Supreme Court permission.
State chief secretary Avani Vaish had earlier said the government was mulling disinvestment of couple of companies but did not disclose names of those companies.
Narmada Hydroelectric Corporation is a joint venture of National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) and the state government. The state has 49 per cent stake in it. The corporation has completed two mega hydel projects in the state — the 1,000- megawatt (Mw) Indira Sagar project and 520-Mw Omkareshwar power project. Buoyed by this timely completion of these two projects, the corporation had planned to take over three mini-hydel projects, having a combined capacity of 120 Mw, but later dropped the plan. Now, it has diversified into thermal and wind power sector also and has bagged two thermal power projects of 1,320 Mw each in the state. These two power projects will be based on supercritical technology. Further, it has also reached an advance stage of conducting a feasibility study of a wind power project of 100 Mw at Kukru village in Betul district.
On the other hand, an official in NHPC said on condition of anonymity: “We have not been informed about the development, the government may be considering it internally.”
The net profit of the company during 2009-10 has slipped to Rs 212.30 crore from Rs 330 crore in the previous year. The company generated 3,070 million units of power from its 1,000 Mw Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar projects against 2368 million unit generated in 2008-09.
State mining corporation, which is engaged in mining and marketing of minerals have also witnessed a slight fall in its profit (unaudited) during 2009-10 which stands at Rs 2319.27 lakh against Rs 2536.28 lakh of the previous year. The turnover of the company is also stagnant at Rs 5693.28 lakh during 2009-10 against Rs 5667.77 lakh of the previous year.
As regards Manganese Ore India Limited (Moil), the state has decided to offload its five per cent stake in the company. It has 8.81 per cent in the Moil. “State has already approved selling 5 per cent in Moil,” the source added.
