NEEPCO to raise funds to finance 880 Mw project

North Eastern Electric Power Corporation limited (NEEPCO) is planning to raise Rs 2,500 crore to part finance its two upcoming projects of 880 Mw in north eastern states.

"We will raise Rs 2,500 crore to part finance Kameng hydro-electric project (600 mw) in Arunachal Pradesh, which was estimated to cost Rs 2500 crore and also Rs 780 crore Tripura gas turbine project of 280 Mw," Neepco's director (finance) MR ghosh said.

To a querry, Ghosh said it would take about another five months to enter the market for raising funds but clarified that it would not be a public issue. "It would be basically a 15 year loan from rec at the rate of 6.5 per cent." He said NEEPCO was awaiting the Union Cabinet's approval for going ahead with the project, which was expected within next two months.

Ghosh said apart from these two projects, NEEPCO was also awaiting the Union Cabinet's approval for 1,500 Mw tipainuk hydro electric project on border of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur.

"This will be Asia's largest hydro power project built with an estimated cost of Rs 5,100 crore," he said.

Presently NEEPCO was generating 1130 mw of power, which was about 50 per cent of the total installed capacity of power in the north east.

Ghosh said NEEPCO had recently restructured its loans by availing a term loan of Rs 800 crore structured by sbi capital markets limited to retire high cost debts that will bring down its interest outgo by about Rs 30 crore annually.