Tamil Nadu

Electricity Board to get Rs. 2,475-crore aid

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) will get an assistance of Rs. 2,475 crore from two Central organisations – Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) – for its various projects in the current financial year. Of the proposed amount, Rs. 1,500 crore will come from the PFC and Rs. 975 crore from the REC.

As on date, the PFC, enjoying the status of Nav Ratna, has released about Rs. 650 crore and the REC Rs. 780 crore. While Rs. 550 crore of the PFC’s assistance has gone for establishing one additional unit of 600 megawatt at the Mettur thermal power station, the REC has given funds for transmission and distribution projects.

An official of the TNEB says that it is because of the Board’s track record of timely repayment of principal and interest that such agencies are keen on funding the Board’s projects.

A senior PFC official says the corporation has fixed a target of Rs. 4,000 crore for disbursement to the southern States this year. So far, it released Rs. 1,307 crore. It has proposed to sanction projects to the tune of Rs. 8,000 crore this year for the South.

Nearly 50 per cent of this figure may go to the TNEB. The corporation hopes to sanction about Rs. 3,000 crore for two capacity addition projects at Ennore and Kundah. In May, the two organisations signed a memorandum of understanding to fund the formation of cogeneration plants of 275 MW capacity. The cost of the plants is estimated to be at Rs. 1,500 crore.

Among the projects sanctioned by the PFC during 2007-2008 were the transmission and distribution (T&D) system improvement (about Rs.103 crore), Bhavani Kattalai Barrage hydro plant -II and III stages (Rs. 487 crore) and Valathur gas turbine power project (Rs. 302 crore).

The additional unit at the Mettur thermal power plant was also sanctioned for Rs.2, 220 crore. Last year, the projects, costing about Rs. 3,360 crore, were sanctioned. The amount disbursed was nearly Rs. 630 crore. In 2006-07, the PFC sanctioned and disbursed around Rs. 260 crore, according to the corporation official.

Till now, the REC, another Nav Ratna company, has sanctioned T&D projects to the extent of Rs. 2,036 crore. In 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, it approved similar projects worth Rs. 1,777 crore and disbursed Rs. 1,192 crore. Besides, the corporation sanctioned Rs. 447 crore for implementing the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) [scheme for rural electricity infrastructure and rural household electrification] and released Rs. 100 crore in the previous financial year.

This year, the Corporation has sanctioned Rs. 80 crore for a power generation project. Last year, it sanctioned Rs. 3,796 crore for the 1,000 MW coal-based thermal power plant at Vallur near here being established by the NTECL (NTPC-Tamil Nadu Energy Company Limited), a joint venture company floated by the NTPC and the TNEB.

An official of the REC says his company hopes to fund the debt portion of cost of the 1,000-MW Tuticorin thermal power project, proposed by the Neyveli Lignite Corporation and the TNEB. Of the total cost of Rs. 4,909 crore, the debt component comes to around Rs. 3,437 crore. The Union Cabinet gave its approval for the project in April.

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