CESC plans Rs30,000 crore investment by 2017
23 Jan 2010
CESC, the power utility arm of the diversified RPG group, is planning to invest Rs30,000 to 35,000 crore within the XII Five Year Plan period (2012-2017), company vice-chairman Sanjiv Goenka said yesterday.
At a press meet in Kolkata to announce the companies third quarter results Goenka said CESC's capacity would touch 6,750 MW (including the 600 MW Chandrapur project in Maharashtra) by 2017.
CESC is the sole power distributor in 567 square kilometres in the city of Kolkata and adjoining Howrah, and owns and operates four thermal power plants generating 975 MW.
The company is planning to focus more on the hydel front. It had already been shortlisted for the 500-MW state-owned project in Lena Suntra in Himachal Pradesh.
"We are also looking at other hydel projects which are up for sale,'' he said. These were expected to be in the Northeast and Himachal Pradesh, he added.
''The variable cost in hydel projects are low and on an operating basis, one can expect higher margins. We have been awarded a 140MW hydel project in Himachal Pradesh, which is our first but by no means, our last. We are examining four proposals, one of them being in Bhutan,'' Goenka said.
On the thermal generation front, the company's third 250 MW unit at Budge Budge is ready for commissioning.