SJNL may save Rs 500 crore

 YN Apparao, the chairman and managing director of SJNL,speaking to the media in Bangalore said: "Due to swapping the average rate of interest on loans has been brought down from 14.5 per cent to 9.31 per cent which will translate into a saving of Rs 500 crore over the years."

 For construction of Rs 8,600 crore project, the corporation had availed a loan of Rs 1,600 crore from the World Bank besides arranging suppliers credit to the tune of about Rs 600 crore.

 The project is being funded with 50 per cent equity and 50 per cent loan. The equity participation of the Government of India and state government of Himachal Pradesh is in the ratio of 3:1.

 "We have now arranged low interest loans from Power Finance Corporation (about Rs 1,800 crore), while Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), Life Insurane Corporation (LIC) and commercial banks have also extended loans of similar amount. The Rs 1,600 crore World Bank loan has now been pre-paid with fresh loans.

 We have also mobilised Rs 100 crore loan from State Bank of Mysore at 7.5 per cent rate of interest and many other institutions are showing interest in extending low cost loans to us," Apparao added.

 He further said that one unit of 250 MW is already operational and the remaining five units will be operated one after another within July 2004. After commissioning of all the six units the project is expected to generate 6,951 million units of power.