In the next decade, an investment of Rs 40,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore will be required for a capacity addition of 14,000mw at today's prices, NTPC's 15-year corporate plan `Looking Ahead (1997-2012)' says.

NTPC, which has over 16,000mw capacity in different plants, envisages to become a 30,000mw plus company by the end of 2007, for which it intends to adopt a multi-pronged growth strategy for capacity addition, the plan says.

"The corporation will adopt a multi-pronged strategy for capacity addition through greenfield sites, expansion of existing stations, takeovers and joint ventures or subsidiaries," the draft recently approved by the board says.

To mobilise funds of such a magnitude, the corporation proposes to tap multilateral financial agencies such as the WorldBank, the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund and the Asian Development Bank.

The corporation will also approach the foreign capital markets directly in order to raise debts to progressively reduce the dependence on multilateral funding agencies, the draft says.

To tap the external commercial borrowings market, NTPC will get itself rated from an international credit rating agency and depending upon the fund position and progress of approval of projects, the corporation will plan its foreign borrowings, the draft says.

With regard to its domestic borrowings, the corporation will re-orient its borrowing programme with greater emphasis on raising resources from domestic debt market to reduce the cost of borrowing to the extent possible.

According to the draft, in the area of syndication of loans through foreign banks, the corporation also should explore the possibility of co-financing along with multilateral funding agencies.

In view of the requirement of large amounts of equity to fund its expansionplans, NTPC will like to retain its profit for re-deployment in its expansion plans, the draft says. The corporation had paid a dividend of Rs 405 crore during 1996-97, it added.

The corporation, along with a few leading merchant bankers, shall be working out modalities to evaluate possibilities of raising resources by securitisation of its debts.

NTPC will also reduce fixed cost per mega watt and set benchmarks for capital investments by reduction of project implementation time and reduce interest during construction in the project cost, the draft says.