PowerGrid says expansion plans are on track

PowerGrid Corporation is well on track with its expansion plans, involving capital expenditure of Rs55,000 crore in the 11th Plan period ending March 2012, its chairman and managing director R N Nayak said in New Delhi on Monday.

He said the state-owned transmission company has already achieved close to 80 per cent of its capital expansion plans till now, and has capex plans of Rs18,000 crore for the current fiscal, up to March 2012. It has spent Rs4,900 crore till October this year.

PowerGrid plans to install about 65,000 circuit km (ckm) of transmission lines during the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017), which is more than twice the likely installation in the current Plan, Nayak said.

The company currently has 87,111 ckm of transmission lines across the country and carries half the country's power. India has an installed capacity of over 180,000 MW.

PowerGrid's target for the 11th Plan was 37,000 ckm, but it may end up with 28,000-30,000 ckm due to delays in commissioning of certain projects. The company has, in the first half of the fiscal, awarded 95 contracts with a total length of 4,224 ckm. It is gearing up to award contracts for its transmission projects in the second half of the current fiscal to meet its capex guidelines.

"We have awarded contracts worth about Rs8,000 crore during the first half (of the fiscal) and have approvals for another Rs2,000 crore. We will do Rs15,000 crore more in the next five months," said executive director T K Wali.