NTPC lowers capacity addition target

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 6. The public sector unit National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has scaled down its target of additional capacity generation programme to 6,000 MW over the next ten years, drastically down from the original target of 20,000 MW. This has come about because of the application of availability based tariff norm laid down by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) which would reduce the internally generated resources of the corporation by Rs. 18,000 crores over the next 10-11 years.

According to the NTPC Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Mr. C. P. Jain, the corporation had appealed against the CERC order in the Delhi High Court which, in its interim order, stated that CERC's orders would be implemented in letter and spirit, except that NTPC would continue to charge tariff on the basis of the pre existing norms, subject to various conditions.

Mr. Jain told presspersons here that NTPC's turnover during 2000- 01 had reached a level of Rs. 19,220 crores, an increase of 11.85 per cent from Rs. 17,184 crores in the previous year. The provisional profit after tax touched Rs. 3,612 crores, up 5.48 per cent from the previous year's profit of Rs. 3,424 crores. NTPC also paid a dividend of Rs. 650 crores for 1999-2000.

The NTPC chairman also pointed out that the outstanding dues of the corporation, including surcharge, had crossed the Rs. 16,000 crore mark.

NTPC's capacity addition programme of 3,000 MW is in various stages of construction which include the 1,000 MW Simhadri (Andhra Pradesh) project and the Talcher (stage two) 2,000 MW in Orissa. The projects in tendering stage include the 1,000 MW Rihand Stage-II, Ramagundam Stage-III of 500 MW and Sipat Stage-I of 1,980 MW. While bids had been opened for Rihand and Ramagundam projects, initial offers for Sipat are expected in the current financial year. Sipat will also be India's first project with super critical technology having a unit size of 660 MW each.

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Section  : Business
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