Rs 4,000 cr loans likely for rural electrification plans

The Rural Electrification Corporation plans to sanction Rs 16,000 crore to power utilities this fiscal. Of this, it expects to disburse around Rs 9,000 crore for generation, transmission, distribution and rural electrification projects.

The corporation has been approached by four power generation developers, including Lanco Energy and Teesta Urja, to be the lead financers to sanction loans totalling Rs 11,485 crore.

"The corporation plans to disburse around Rs 3,000 crore each for generation and distribution projects and Rs 1,000 crore for transmission projects. It also plans to disburse Rs 4,000 crore for rural electrification projects in 2006-07," Chairman and Managing Director REC AK Lakhina told Business Standard.

Teesta Urja Ltd has approached the firm for a Rs 5,311.30-crore loan for its 1,200-Mw Teesta Phase-III hydro-electric power generation project in Sikkim.

Lanco Energy Pvt Ltd has applied for a Rs 2,397.51-crore loan for Teesta Phase-IV hydro-electric project, while Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Ltd has applied for a Rs 3,692-crore loan for its 1,000-Mw Bhusawal thermal power project in Maharashtra.

Aleo Manali Hydro Power Pvt Ltd has requested for a Rs 84-crore loan for its 25-Mw Chanju-I hydro-electric project in Himachal Pradesh.

Talking about the Rs 4,000-crore Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, Lakhina said around 200 detailed project reports were in the pipeline for the programme and tenders were being floated.

REC believes that for its pump energisation programme ground water should be exploited in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The corporation is of the opinion that it should not be exploited in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

REC is looking at a policy for distributed generation in rural areas. "The generation model shall be based on the material available in the area, distributed machinery must be attached to it and it must be on a small scale with an investment of around Rs 20 crore to Rs 30 crore," Lakhina added.