The public sector Neyveli
Lignite Corporation Ltd
has signed an agreement
with State Bank of India for
partly financing its new 2x500
MW thermal power station project
at Neyveli in Cuddalore district
of Tamil Nadu. The mining
and power generation company
is setting up the project at an
estimated cost of
5,907 crore.
NLC signed a rupee term loan
agreement with SBI for
2,500
crore to meet a part of 70 per
cent of debt portion required for
the project. The fund will be on
a 70:30 debt-equity ratio, NLC
said in a statement. K. Sekar,
Director (Finance) and S.B.
Nayar, Deputy Managing
Director and Group Executive,
SBI, exchanged documents in
the presence of NLC CMD A.R.
Ansari and SBI Chairman
Pratip Chaudhuri.
The two units of 500 MW each
are expected to be commissioned
in June 2015 and
December 2015, respectively.
Power purchase agreements
have been signed with Tamil
Nadu Generation and Distribution
Corporation as well as distribution
companies of other
states. The fuel (lignite) for the
project would be met after
restructuring the existing
Mine-I and Mine-IA by adding
contiguous lignite blocks.
The 1,000-MW thermal power
project will replace the existing
TPS-I of 600 MW capacity at
Neyveli. This is because the
power generation from TPS-I is
proposed to be tapered down
between year 2009 and 2014 due
to ageing of the plant. The Government
of India sanctioned this
project in June 2011.