NEW DELHI, July 13: Public sector National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has received five bids for its first stage of the 420-megawatt gas power project at Faridabad to be set up with an investment of Rs 1,163 crore.

The corporation will also call for the bids for the Rs 3,650-crore Simhadri Thermal Project consisting of two 500 mw units , NTPC chairman Rajendra Singh said.

The cabinet committee on economic affairs had cleared the two projects of the corporation last week. NTPC has also been given full financial and functional autonomy as part of the government's Navratna package.

The corporation, which palns to be a 25,000-mw company by 2003, has also decided to go increasingly for debts to meet financial requirements for its new projects at a debt equity ratio 70:30 for getting an ensured return of 16 per cent, at par with the private sector, Singh said.

``A few international companies have also quoted their offers for the Faridabad project to be set up in Haryana,'' Singh said. He, however, refused to divulge the names of the companies.

The Faridabad plant will be partly promoted by the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) of Japan, which will finance 85 per cent of the project. The balance will be arranged by NTPC.``Funds have never been a constraint to us and we have good internal resources,'' Singh said, adding, ``what we want is a good competitive price for our projects''.

The autonomy package granted to the corporation will facilitate and create an environment conducive to take faster decisions, he said.Singh said NTPC was likely to hit the market during 1998-99, adding it was also planning to take up eight more projects with a generating capacity of about 8,950 mw for the ninth and tenth plans, which include three mega coal-based power projects of 2,000 mw each.

The three mega power project include Talcher in Orissa, Seepat in Madhya Pradesh and South Madras power project, he said.``Of the 2,000-mw South Madras project, the first phase of 1,000 mw will use blended coal as its fuel which will be partly imported, and if liquified natural gas becomes available, the next 1,000 mw of the project will use natural gas as its fuel, Singh said.

The tariff structure of the corporation is very good in comparison with the private sector and ``we are also not at a disadvantage on our returns,'' Singh said.The corporation is strong enough to face international competition and the autonomy granted to it will be utilised to make NTPC strong and effective, he said.

The corporation has also the power to incur expenditure on replacement and renewal of assets upto Rs 100 crore without the prior approval from the centre.NTPC has also been permitted to sanction upto Rs 20 crore towards advance expenditure on new project proposals to enable it to take up investigations, land acquisition and development of infrastructure.

It registered an increase of Rs 319.93 crore in its net profit for the half year ended March 31, 1997 as against that of the corresponding six months in the previous year. During 1996-97, the corporation generated 97,609 million units of electricity registering an increase of 4.43 per cent over the previous year's generation of 93,468 million units, Singh said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.