BL reported that industrial power provider OPG Power Ventures plc, listed on the London Stock Exchange, plans to invest nearly INR 3,000 crore on setting up thermal power plants in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat to increase its existing generation capacity to 750 MW by 2014.

Currently, the company has 113 MW of installed capacity, including an 80 MW coal based plant, 26 MW gas-based unit and 7 MW waste heat recovery based facility in Chennai.

Mr Prashant Goyal director of OPG Power Ventures said that as part of its expansion, it is now setting up a second coal based 80 MW plant at Chennai set to start production in three months, a third 80 MW plant to go critical early next year, 2 plants of 80 MW each at other locations in TN, to start in 2014 and two plants of 150 MW each in Kutch, Gujarat.

For its capacity expansion, the company had already raised EUR 120 million to fund the equity requirement for these projects. The company will invest INR 1,600 crore at Bhadreshwar, near Gandhidham for the coal based plant and the balance INR 1,400 crore in Tamil Nadu.

Mr Goyal said that all the necessary clearances have been obtained for these projects from the various authorities concerned. For the 300 MW Bhadreshwar plant the company has acquired 250 acres and is procuring machinery worth about INR 900 crore from BHEL. This plant will start generating power in early 2015. For its various thermal power plants, OPG Power will require 5 million tonnes of coal a year for which it has tied up with Coal India Limited and Indonesian suppliers.

Source - Business Line

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