PowerGrid seeks Rs8,750 crore loan from World Bank, ADB

Navratna public sector enterprise PowerGrid Corporation has approached the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for tying up loans of up to Rs8,750 crore to finance its upcoming transmission projects in the country.

The transmission company has forwarded its proposal to the ministry of finance through the power ministry for negotiations with multilateral lending agencies.

According to a senior company official, the proposal for raising $750 million from the World Bank and $1 billion from the ADB had been sent to the finance ministry by the ministry of power. He added that the finance ministry would now negotiate with the World Bank and ADB.

The loans would go towards financing the company's projects in the next financial year (2010-11) he said.

The company has planned investments of Rs55,000 crore for setting up transmission lines in the country during the current plan period (2007-12).

The company is looking to increase its transmission capacity to 23,400 MW in the current fiscal from the existing 19,800 MW and further augmenting it to 37,000MW within the plan period.

PowerGrid is one of the largest transmission utilities in the world and wheels about 45 per cent of the total power generated in the country on its transmission network. It has a pan India presence with around 71,500 circuit km of transmission network and 120 EHVAC & HVDC sub-stations with a total transformation capacity of 79,500 MVA. Powergrid has also diversified into telecom business and established a telecom network of more than 20,000 km across the country.