An agreement to this effect was signed here between the officials of NTPC and UCO bank, a bank statement said.

NTPC, which is planning to become a 30,000 MW company by 2007 and 40,000 MW company by 2012, would get a tremendous boost by the loan, the statement said.

The power utility's existing capacity is over 19,000 MW. UCO Bank has a very ambitious growth plan for the current year which includes state-of-the technology upgradation, trimming the staff strength and bringing down non-performing assets among others, bank's executive director VP Shetty said.