Power plants: FM meets Ambani, Ruia

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday took stock of the power ministry's ambitious plans to set up five ultra mega power projects of 4,000 MW each envisaging an investment of Rs 75,000 crore (Rs 750 billion) in a high-level meeting with corporate giants such as Reliance Energy, Essar, Sterlite group and senior power sector officials.

Reliance Energy chairman Anil Ambani, Essar's Shahi Ruia, Sterlite group chief Anil Aggarwal, Power Finance Corporation chairman V K Garg, Central Electricity Authority chairman Rakesh Nath, Power Secretary R V Shahi and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan were among those who attended the meeting.

"Power Finance Corp would invite expressions of interest by January 31 this year for the ultra mega projects," Shahi said after the meeting. He, however, did not elaborate.

The plants are proposed to be set up at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, Akaltara in Chhattisgarh, Mundra in Gujarat, Karvar in Karnataka and Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, sources said, adding that global companies may also be allowed to take part in the competitive tariff-based bidding process.

Sources said the Ministry of Coal had given in-principle clearance for fuel linkages for the two pithead plants in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The other three plants are likely to be run on imported coal.

State-run PFC has been appointed as the nodal agency and would set up five companies as its subsidiaries for each power plant. The companies would work independently to get all the necessary approvals, after which these would be transferred to potential investors by the end of 2006.