Mumbai: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd, the state-owned power generation company, has marked a capital expenditure of Rs 18,000 crore for capacity augmentation and mining operations next fiscal. The company plans to hike its capacity by 2,800 mw and start mining activities by the end of the current financial year.

During a conference call with analysts, a company official said NTPC has an investment target of Rs 12,600 crore for the current fiscal. Of this, 50% has already been spent. The official said that in the next financial year, the company plans to increase the capex by about Rs 6,000 crore, excluding investments in joint venture companies. The official added that NTPC plans to add 2,800 mw capacity in fiscal 2009-10, 5,410 mw in 2010-11 and 10,980 mw in 2011-12.

NTPC is also looking at coal imports and plans to import 10.25 million tonnes of coal this year and an equal amount the next year. On the domestic front, the company will spend Rs 232.38 crore on coal mining operations next year. But this allocation may change depending on the progress of the operations.

The official said the company plans to start the development of mines in the next financial year. “From then, it will take about 43 months to start production.”

However, there are rumours of a possible delay in NTPC’s mining activities. In a December 15, 2008 report, Rakesh Vyas and Ivan Lee, analysts with international broking firm Nomura, said, “We expect delays in the proposed plan due to issues such as land acquisition, lack of skilled resources and delays in getting environmental clearances.” They said NTPC plans to mine around 12 million tonne per annum (mtpa) of coal by 2012.

By 2017, it is looking to scale this up to 47 mtpa, or 20% of its total coal demand. NTPC has recently been allocated 6 coal mines with reserves of 3,650 mt. It has an installed capacity of 29,394 mw. NTPC operates 15 coal-fired, 7 gas-fired and 4 JV power plants and is targeting a capacity of 50,000 mw in the XIth Five-Year Plan.

source: DnaIndia

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