PowerGrid seeks $ 600-mn loan to fund its projects

New Delhi: State-owned PowerGrid Corp will seek fresh loan of USD 600 million (Rs 2,400 crore) from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to fund its mega transmission projects, including those relating to the ultra mega power projects.

PGCIL, which has won transmission projects for the three ultra mega power projects, would approach ADB for USD 400 million and the World Bank for USD 200 million, a company official said.

'This would be over and above USD 800 million (Rs 3,200 crore) already sought from the two multilateral agencies,' he said, adding the loans would be guaranteed by the government, which owns majority shareholding in the PSU.

The company expects to achieve a turnover of Rs 5,400 crore in the next fiscal, an 18 per cent rise over the previous year's revenues.

The country requires over Rs 70,000 crore during 2007-12 for expanding and upgrading the electricity transmission network.

Of this, private players would invest only about Rs 20,000 crore and the remaining would have to be spent by PGCIL and other public sector utilities.

The company targets to add about 5,500 circuit kms of extra high voltage transmission lines and about 6,300 MVA of transformation capacity in this financial year (2008-09).

The BSE listed company, which recently received Navratna status from the government, is planning to foray into the neighbouring countries, beginning with Myanmar.

After receiving the Navratna status, the public sector firm can now take investment decisions without seeking government's approval to form joint ventures for up to Rs 1,000 crore or 15 per cent of its net worth.

The company may also bid to set up electricity distribution networks in Turkey.

PGCIL is planning an investment of Rs 75,000 crore during the XIth plan period. Out of which, Rs 55,000 crore would be utilised to set up transmission lines in the country.

And PGCIL would invest an additional Rs 20,000 crore on its own for setting up these lines if there were no private sector participant.

The company has set a target of Rs 250 crore from the consultancy projects for 2008-09. It has realised consultancy fee of about Rs 235 crore from its ongoing projects during the year.

The annual net profit of PGCIL, which got listed in October last year 2007-08 stood at Rs 1,420 crore and turnover Rs 4,700 crore, on the back of increased business from telecom, consultancy and performance improvement.